Born on March 18, 1955. He received his higher education in Donetsk, where in 1981 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of History of Donetsk State University, specializing as a historian with the right to teach history and social studies.

For the next two decades, he worked in various secondary schools in the Donetsk region as a history teacher and instructor of other subjects, continually enhancing his professional skills. In 1999 and 2000, upon invitation from the Donetsk Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education, he participated in the "Teacher of the Year" professional competitions, initially in the "Law Studies" category and later in the "History" category, securing prize positions both times.

In 2002, he defended his candidate's dissertation and obtained the academic degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences in the specialty "World History." From 2002 to 2004, he worked as an associate professor in the Department of Social and Humanitarian Disciplines and served as deputy dean of the Faculty of Journalism at the Donetsk Institute of Social Education.

From 2004 to 2014, he held the position of associate professor in the Department of Sociology of Management at Donetsk State University of Management. In 2006, he was awarded the academic title of associate professor.

In 2014, he defended his doctoral dissertation and received the academic degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences in the specialty "History of Ukraine."

From December 2014 to November 2018, he worked as the head of the Department of Ukrainian Studies at the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management. In 2016, he was awarded the academic title of professor.

From November 2018 to November 2021, V.Zh. Popov worked as the head and later as a professor in the Department of Philosophy and History at the Educational and Scientific Humanitarian Institute of Tavria National University named after V.I. Vernadsky.

Since September 2022, he has been a professor in the Department of Sociology at Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman.

His main areas of activity include teaching, developing methodological recommendations for academic disciplines, and conducting research. In the scientific realm, V.Zh. Popov's primary academic interests lie in the sociology of everyday life and social history, particularly the daily lives of ordinary citizens during socio-political crises and the capacity of social communities for self-organization in extreme situations.