1985 in the Soviet Union
The following lists events that happened during 1985 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Incumbents
- General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev
- Premier of the Soviet Union: Nikolai Tikhonov
- Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR: Mikhail Yasnov, Vladimir Orlov
Events
February
- February 24 — 1985 Russian Supreme Soviet election
- February 28 — Konstantin Chernenko makes a rare and last appearance on TV.
March
- March 10 — At 15:00, Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko fell into a coma and died later that evening at 19:20, at age 73.
- March 11 — Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded Konstantin Chernenko as General Secretary.
- March 13 — Konstantin Chernenko was honored with a state funeral and was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, he was the last person to be interred there.
April
- The Soviet Union begins to transfer the burden of fighting the mujahideen to the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
May
- May 9 — The 3rd total Victory Day Parade is held on Red Square in Moscow in the Soviet Union.
November
- November 19 — Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan meet for the first time in Geneva.
Births
- January 25 — Tina Karol, Ukrainian singer
- April 25 — Vladimir Balyntec, Russian powerlifter
- September 17 — Alexander Ovechkin, Russian ice hockey player
- November 28 — Evgeny Alekseev, Russian chess grandmaster
Deaths
- January 7 — Vladimir Kokkinaki, test pilot
- January 22 — Mikhail Gromov, military aviator and test pilot
- February 24 — Nigol Andresen, politician, writer, literary critic and translator
- March 3 — Iosif Shklovsky, astronomer and astrophysicist
- March 10 — Konstantin Chernenko, 6th Leader of the Soviet Union
- March 17 — Nikolai Gusarov, 17th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia
- April 19
- *Pavel Batov, senior Red Army general
- *Sergei Tokarev, ethnologist
- May 22 — Aleksandr Babaev, Air Force fighter pilot
- May 28 — Mamed Iskenderov, 6th Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
- June 17 — Kirill Moskalenko, 2nd Commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces
- October 10 — Yul Brynner, Russian-born American actor
- October 14 — Emil Gilels, pianist
- November 5 — Arnold Chikobava, linguist and philologist
- November 10 — Givi Javakhishvili, 11th Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
- November 13 — Alexander Pokryshkin, fighter pilot
- November 18 — Dmitry Ryabyshev, military commander of the 8th Mechanized Corps
- November 26 — Sergei Gerasimov, film director and screenwriter