1961 in the Soviet Union
The following lists events that happened during 1961 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 - Leonid Brezhnev
- Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union - Nikita Khrushchev
Births
- 30 March - Sergei Nozikov, former Russian professional footballer
- 1 June - Yevgeny Prigozhin, mercenary chief
Deaths
- 15 July - Nina Bari, Russian mathematician
- 4 October - Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), Soviet Orthodox missionary and writer, Exarch of Russian Church in North America
Events
- 1 September - first of the 1961 Soviet nuclear tests
- 13 September - Exhibition of Leningrad artists
- 5 November - 1961 Elbarusovo school fire killed 110 students and teachers.