Born in 1958.

He studied at GITIS (in 1982 he was expelled for “antisocial activity”; reinstated in 1988). Since 1977 — member of the dissident movement. In 1982–1983 — in custody; pardoned.

1989–1991 — Columnist for IMA-Press Agency.

1992–1994 — Columnist for the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions Solidarity.

1993 to 1994 — expert of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia.

1994–2002 — Senior Research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISPRAN).

Candidate of Political Sciences. In April 2002, he became director of the Institute for the Problems of Globalization; after its division in 2006, he headed the Institute of Globalisation Studies and Social Movements (IGSO). Kagarlitsky is editor in chief of Levaya Politika (Left Politics) quarterly in Moscow and is member of the scientific community of the Transnational Institute (TNI, Amsterdam) since 2000. Lecturer at the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences. Author of more than ten books on history and political science.

Lives in Moscow.