Throughout the entire period of Kovalyov's rule, the region had the lowest crime rate in the country.

In 1980, he was a senior dispatcher engineer at the Voronezh production association of press-forging equipment named after V.I.

In August 1991, Kovalyov was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Voronezh City Council of People's Deputies.

On 10 April 1992, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Kovalyov as Governor (Head) of the Voronezh Oblast, and he held this position until September 1996.

[3] On 28 September 1996, he was appointed Plenipotentiary Representative in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and in Ingushetia.