1978 in the Soviet Union
The following lists events that happened during 1978 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Incumbents
- General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Leonid Brezhnev
- Premier of the Soviet Union: Alexei Kosygin
- Chairman of the Russian SFSR: Mikhail Solomentsev
Events
January
- 24 January – The Kosmos 954 ends its mission
February
March
April
- 14 April – 1978 Georgian demonstrations
- 20 April – The Soviet Air Force shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902, a civilian airliner That flew into Soviet airspace.
- 25 April – 18th Komsomol Congress
May
June
- 21 June – 1978 Iranian Chinook shootdown: 2 Boeing CH-47 Chinook belonging to the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces strayed into Soviet airspace over the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic during a training mission, resulting in the Shootdown of both aircraft by the Soviet Air Forces.
July
September
- 28 September – one of the last Forest Brother guerilla movement fighter August Sabbe was discovered and killed in Estonia.
October
November
December
Births
- 25 January – Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine since 2019
Deaths
- January 2 — Boris Chernousov, 10th Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR
- January 18 — Ivan Dzerzhinsky, composer
- February 17 — Artemiy Artsikhovsky, archaeologist and historian
- February 19 — Mikhail Zakharov, navy officer
- April 4 — Semyon Kirlian, Russian inventor
- April 28 — Roman Karmen, film director, war cinematographer, documentary filmmaker, journalist, screenwriter, pedagogue and publicist
- May 1 — Aram Khachaturian, composer and conductor
- May 25 — Artur Vader, 8th Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR
- May 26 — Tamara Karsavina, ballerina
- June 24 — Mstislav Keldysh, mathematician
- July 17 — Fyodor Kulakov, statesman
- July 22 — Mikhail Pervukhin, statesman
- July 31 — Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich of Russia
- September 5 — Nikodim Rotov, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod
- September 27 — Sergei Aslamazyan, composer
- September 28 – August Sabbe, Estonian anti-communist of the Forest Brother
- October 18 — Ramón Mercader, Spanish communist and NKVD agent
- October 21 — Anastas Mikoyan, statesman
- October 23 — Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia
- December 18 — Lev Uspensky, writer and philologist
- December 30 — Mark Naimark, mathematician