Zakharov was born in the village of Khriply, Firovsky district, Kalinin region, on 5 January 1934.
[2] Zakharov's career at the Communist Party began in 1973 when he was named as the head of the propaganda and agitation department in Leningrad.
[3] He moved to Moscow in 1983 because of his appointment as first deputy chief of the propaganda department of the party's central committee.
[4] From January 1986 he worked as the second secretary of the Moscow City central committee under Boris Yeltsin.
[2][4] In June 1989 Zakharov was again proposed by Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov as minister of culture.