Born in the city of Moscow, then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Pavlov began his political career in the Ministry of Finance in 1959.

Pavlov was appointed to the post of Chairman of the State Committee on Prices during the Gorbachev Era, and later became Minister of Finance in Nikolai Ryzhkov's second government.

He went on to succeed Ryzhkov as head of government in the newly established post of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.

[2] Early in his career he also worked for the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

[4] He succeeded Gostev to become Minister of Finance in Ryzhkov's government in 1989 and his time in the post was considered uncontroversial, even though Lira Rozenova, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Prices, was not elected to the post of Chairman of the State Committee for her advocacy of Pavlov-backed plans for centrally administered price reform.

Initiated on 22 January 1991, it was intended to withdraw money from circulation for reallocation to the production of consumer goods, which were in short supply.

[citation needed] In a speech, Pavlov stated that the reason for the withdrawal was the government's belief that money was being sent to the Soviet Union from abroad, fueling inflation.

[18] Mikhail Gorbachev then signed a presidential decree ordering the Soviet financial system to stop accepting and exchanging banknotes issued in 1961.

[citation needed] Under the orders of Pavlov, the Government freed forty percent of prices on 1 January 1991, and introduced sales tax of 5%.

[19] According to Philip Hanson in his book, The Rise and Fall of the Soviet economy: An Economic History of the USSR from 1945, Pavlov's reform was undermined by the Union Republics who failed to follow Pavlov's orders, along with the widespread existence of local monopolies, which tended to have their own definition of luxury goods and as a result imposed higher prices on such items.

This reform also dealt a crippling blow to Soviet citizens who had saved their money and could not move fast enough to get it exchanged; some lost as much as 15,000 - 30,000 rubles overnight.

[citation needed] In April, he presented an "Anticrisis Plan", calling for a ban on strikes, the suspension of laws in the republics that contradicted Soviet law, a special management regime for the power, communication and transport industries, penalties against republics that failed to fulfil financial obligations to the centre (and the freezing of all contradictory decisions by republican and local officials and punishment for officials who fail to carry out orders), accelerated denationalisation of small enterprises and services, giving state run enterprises freedom of action, radical budget cuts, freeing prices, lifting control on wages levels, stabilization of the Soviet Ruble, and channelling of new resources into agriculture.

[22] According to Pavlov, the union's problems remained insoluble as long as Gorbachev retained so much power and had limited time to address important issues.

To break the impasse, Pavlov called for a transfer of power from the President of the Soviet Union to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers, (specifically, he wanted the Cabinet to have the right to issue decrees on economic affairs without the approval of the president, to propose legislation on its own, a larger role in social and economic policy making, control over the Gosbank and he taxation inspectorate, and a special mandate to go after organized crime), even creating a five-point resolution to that end for the legislature to consider.

Pavlov received support for the idea from the Soyuz parliamentary faction leader Viktor Alksnis, who called for an immediate vote on the issue.

The New Union Treaty being prepared called for further decentralization of power to the republics, which weakened the government's already tenuous hold on the economy.

He was asked by Kryuchkov to meet his co-plotters at the Moscow Kremlin, where on 19 August, he and his co-conspirators appeared on live television and told the Soviet people that Gorbachev was indisposed.

He resigned at the request of the bank's board of directors, who informed him that they had decided "to provide him an indefinite leave of absence.

[34] Pavlov then worked as an advisor to Promstroybank between 1996 and 1997, and in 1998 also became a vice president of the American firm Business Management Systems.