Evgenii Anatol'evich Popov was born in Krasnoiarsk in Siberia on 5 January 1946. Popov's father, Anatolii Evgen'evich Popov, was a professional soccer player who later became a major in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His mother, Galina Aleksandrovna (Mazurova) Popova, was a kindergarten teacher. One of two children, Popov has a sister, Natal'ia.

Popov moved to Moscow in 1963 to study, but his attempts to enroll in humanities courses (literature, cinematography, and even Oriental languages) failed, and he finally entered the Ordzhonikidze Geology and Prospecting Institute. He graduated in 1968 and at the time was a Muscovite in all but name. On several occasions Popov speaks of having two hometowns, Krasnoiarsk and Moscow; similarly he also had, in the 1960s and early 1970s, two professions, geology and literature. He had been publishing in a minor fashion from the age of sixteen. Moscow in Popov's student days was a most invigorating experience for...