1953 in the Soviet Union
The following lists events that happened during 1953 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Incumbents
- First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union — Nikita Khrushchev
- Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union — Nikolay Shvernik, Kliment Voroshilov
- Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union — Joseph Stalin, Georgy Malenkov
Events
March
- March 5 — Joseph Stalin dies, starting a power struggle among Soviet leadership.
May
- May 26 – August 4 — Norilsk uprising
July
- July 19 – August 1 — Vorkuta uprising
August
- August 12 — Joe 4, the first Soviet test of a thermonuclear weapon occurs.
- August 23 — RDS-4 is first tested.
Births
- January 3 — Ali Masimli, Acting Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
- January 5 — Vassily Solomin, boxer and Olympian
- January 21 — Larisa Shoigu, Russian politician
- January 23 — Pavlo Lazarenko, 5th Prime Minister of Ukraine
- January 31
- *Sergei Ivanov, 5th Minister of Defence of Russia
- *Aron Atabek, Kazakh writer and dissident
- February 13 — Sergei Kapustin, ice hockey player
- February 14 — Sergey Mironov, 3rd Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia
- February 24 — Georgy Poltavchenko, 3rd Governor of Saint Petersburg
- March 13 — Boris Zolotaryov, 2nd Governor of Evenk Autonomous Okrug
- April 8 — Alexander Berdnikov, 5th Head of the Altai Republic
- April 29 — Nikolai Budarin, Russian cosmonaut
- May 2 — Valery Gergiev, Russian conductor and opera company director
- May 3 — Salman Hashimikov, Soviet and Russian heavyweight wrestler
- May 6 — Aleksandr Akimov, engineer
- May 9 — Valery Zubov, 2nd Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai
- May 17 — Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 2nd President of Kazakhstan
- May 23 — Vyacheslav Shtyrov, 2nd Head of the Sakha Republic
- May 27 — Viktor Tolokonsky, 6th Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai
- May 29 — Aleksandr Abdulov, Soviet and Russian film and stage actor
- June 23 — Armen Sarkissian, 4th President of Armenia
- June 24 — Ivo Lill, Estonian glass artist
- June 29 — Ivan Malakhov, 4th Governor of Sakhalin Oblast
- July 19 — Zinovia Dushkova, Russian author
- July 28 — Vladimir Rushailo, 4th Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
- August 17 — Myktybek Abdyldayev, 10th Speaker of the Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan
- September 23 — Alexey Maslov, 2nd Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces
- October 7 — Andrey Soloviev, war photographer
- October 22 — Akaki Asatiani, 2nd Chairman of the Supreme Council of Georgia
- November 2 — Sergey Levchenko, 7th Governor of Irkutsk Oblast
- November 16 — Aleksandr Prokopenko, football player
- November 27
- *Boris Grebenshchikov, Soviet and Russian rock musician
- *Aleksandr Torshin, Russian politician
- December 18 — Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen bard
- December 30 — Oleksandr Sviatotskyi, Ukrainian jurist
Deaths
- January 1 — Maksim Purkayev, military leader
- February 13 — Lev Mekhlis, 9th Minister of State Control of the Soviet Union
- March 5
- *Joseph Stalin, 2nd Leader of the Soviet Union
- *Sergei Prokofiev, composer
- March 23 — Oskar Luts, writer and playwright
- May 4 — Nikolai Cholodny, microbiologist
- May 31 — Vladimir Tatlin, painter and architect
- June 30 — Vsevolod Pudovkin, film director, screenwriter and actor
- July 31 — Nikolay Zelinsky, chemist
- August 1 — Jānis Mendriks, Roman Catholic priest
- August 30 — Elena Rozmirovich, revolutionary and politician
- October 6 — Vera Mukhina, sculptor and painter
- November 8
- *Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, writer
- *Zoya Rozhdestvenskaya, singer
- December 23
- *Lavrentiy Beria, 3rd People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union
- *Vsevolod Merkulov, 10th Minister of State Control of the Soviet Union
- *Bogdan Kobulov, senior member of Soviet security and police apparatus