1937 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1937 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union — Joseph Stalin
Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets — Mikhail Kalinin
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union — Vyacheslav Molotov

Events

23–30 January — Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center
June — Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization
18–20 June — by the crew led by Valery Chkalov
12–14 July — A world-record non-stop, by the crew led by Mikhail Gromov, from Moscow to San Jacinto, California
12 December — Soviet Union legislative election, 1937

Films

Bezhin Meadow — directed by Sergei EisensteinLullaby — directed by Dziga VertovThe Return of Maxim — directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid TraubergWithout Dowry — directed by Yakov Protazanov

Births

2 January — Marietta Chudakova, Soviet and Russian literary critic
12 January — Mikheil Meskhi, footballer
20 January — Mintimer Shaimiev, 1st Head of Tatarstan
30 January — Boris Spassky, Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster
16 February — Yuri Manin, mathematician
19 February — Boris Pugo, 9th Minister of Interior of the Soviet Union
25 February — Yegor Stroyev, 2nd Chairman of the Federation Council
28 February — Vitaly Tulenev, Soviet and Russian painter, visual artist and art teacher
4 March — Yuri Senkevich, Soviet and Russian physician and scientist
6 March — Valentina Tereshkova, Soviet and Russian cosmonaut
15 March — Valentin Rasputin, Soviet and Russian writer
16 March — Valentina Parshina, agronomist and politician
18 March — Aleksei Zasukhin, Soviet and Russian boxer
23 March — Boris Zaytsev, Soviet and Russian ice hockey goaltender
2 April — Yuri Falin, Soviet and Russian football player
9 April — Leonid Barbier, Soviet and Ukrainian swimmer
10 April — Bella Akhmadulina, Soviet and Russian poet
13 April — Osman Mirzayev, Head of Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan
14 April — Anatoly Lysenko, television figure, journalist, director and producer
24 April — Galina Semenova, Soviet and Russian politician
27 April — Olga Bondareva, mathematician and economist
29 April — Yevgeny Feofanov, boxer
1 May — Hazret Sovmen, 2nd Head of the Republic of Adygea
7 May — Sergey Ling, 3rd Prime Minister of Belarus
10 May — Vadim Rogovin, Soviet and Russian Trotskyist historian and sociologist
30 May — Aleksandr Demyanenko, actor
12 June — Vladimir Arnold, mathematician
18 June — Vitaly Zholobov, Soviet and Ukrainian cosmonaut
2 July — Oleg Shenin, politician
6 July — Vladimir Ashkenazy, Soviet and Russian pianist
7 July — Valery Anisimov, wrestler
8 July — Lidia Klement, singer
21 July — Eduard Streltsov, footballer
10 August — Anatoly Sobchak, Mayor of Saint Petersburg
20 August — Uzakbay Karamanov, last Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR
26 August — Gennady Yanayev, Vice President of the Soviet Union
6 September — Gennady Shpalikov, poet, screenwriter and film director
13 September — Igor Ivanov, Acting Head of Karachay-Cherkessia
16 September — Valentina Dimitrieva, Soviet and Russian farm worker
20 September — Valentin Knysh, politician
23 September — Aleksandr Medakin, Soviet and Russian football player
24 September — Umyar Mavlikhanov, Soviet and Russian fencer
26 September — Valentin Pavlov, 11th Premier of the Soviet Union
28 September — Georgy Rerberg, Soviet and Russian cinematographer
30 September
*Yuri Maslyukov, Soviet and Russian politician
*Vitaliy Boiko, Soviet and Ukrainian lawyer and diplomat
3 October — Aleksandr Kondratov, Soviet and Russian linguist, biologist, journalist and poet
8 October — Eduard Rossel, 1st Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast
27 October — Victor Popov, Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist
6 November — Vadim Bakatin, 8th Chairman of the Committee for State Security
12 November — Alexey Obukhov, Russian diplomat and politician
13 November — Mikhail Nikolayev, 1st Head of the Sakha Republic
22 November — Nikolai Kapustin, Soviet and Russian composer and pianist
25 November — Serikbolsyn Abdildin, 1st Chairman of the Supreme Council of Kazakhstan
26 November — Boris Yegorov, Soviet and Russian physician and cosmonaut
29 November — Ali Aliyev, Soviet and Russian freestyle wrestler
7 December — Simon Gindikin, Russian mathematician
24 December — Viacheslav Chornovil, Soviet dissident and Ukrainian politician

Deaths

10 January — Martemyan Ryutin, Marxist activist, Bolshevik revolutionary and a political functionary of the Russian Communist Party
16 January — Pyotr Bark, banker and government official during the Imperial Russia era
30 January
*Georgy Pyatakov, 1st First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine
*Nikolay Muralov, Bolshevik revolutionary leader and military commander
18 February — Grigory Ordzhonikidze, member of the Old Bolsheviks and statesman
24 February — Vladimir Lipsky, scientist and botanist
8 March — Yuriy Kotsiubynsky, politician and activist
22 March — Vladimir Maksimov, stage and silent film actor
29 March — Feodor Koenemann, pianist, composer and music teacher
13 April — Ilya Ilf, journalist and writer
31 May
*Yan Gamarnik, 10th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia
*Nikolai Uglanov, 9th First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
4 June — Keke Geladze, mother of Joseph Stalin
12 June
*Mikhail Tukhachevsky, prominent general
*Ieronim Uborevich, military commander
*Iona Yakir, army commander
*Vitovt Putna, Red Army officer
*Vitaly Primakov, revolutionary, military leader and commander of the Red Cossacks
*Robert Eideman, komkor, writer and poet
*Maria Ulyanova, revolutionary, politician and younger sister of Vladimir Lenin
16 June — Alexander Chervyakov, politician, revolutionary and founding member of the Communist Party of Byelorussia
27 June — Sandro Akhmeteli, theater director
1 July
*Ilya Garkavy, komkor and organizer of the Red Guards detachments in Tiraspol
*Matvei Vasilenko, komkor
3 July — Boris Gorbachyov, komkor
13 July
*Mikhail Alafusov, general
*Mykhailo Boychuk, monumentalist and modernist painter
16 July — Vladimir Kirillov, poet
18 July — Grigol Giorgadze, historian, jurist and politician
22 July — Paolo Iashvili, poet and one of the leading members of the Georgian symbolist movement
13 August — Sigizmund Levanevsky, pioneer of long-range flight
19 August
*Alexander Hotovitzky, Russian Orthodox priest and missionary
*Ivan Kataev, novelist, short story writer and journalist
9 September — Mikhail Diterikhs, general in the Imperial Russian Army and key figure in the White movement
20 September — Lev Karakhan, revolutionary and diplomat
27 September — Alikhan Bukeikhanov, politician, statesman and journalist
10 October — Peter of Krutitsy, Russian Orthodox priest and metropolitan
23 October — Nikolai Klyuev, poet
30 October
*Avel Enukidze, member of the Old Bolsheviks
*Ivan Zhukov, politician and statesman
*Mendel Khatayevich, politician and one of the main organizers of Collectivization in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
10 November — Nikolai Batalov, stage and film actor
20 November — Joseph Petrovykh, bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and spiritual writer
25 November — Aleksandr Glagolev, Russian Orthodox priest
26 November — Leonid Veyner, general
27 November
*Vsevolod Balitsky, official
*Vasyl Lypkivsky, Russian Orthodox priest and metropolitan
28 November — Ernest Appoga, general and revolutionary
8 December — Ahmet Baitursynuly, intellectual
16 December — Giorgi Mazniashvili, general and military leader of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
21 December — Meliton Balanchivadze, opera singer and composer

Dates unknown

Vassily Ryutin, older son of Martemyan Ryutin
Vissarion Ryutin, younger son of Martemyan Ryutin