1986 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1986 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

20 February – The first component of the Mir space station - the core module - is launched.
24 February – VI Winter Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR opens in Krasnoyarsk.
25 February – The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is opened, where the concept of glasnost emerges.

12 April – 1986 World Ice Hockey Championships are inaugurated in Moscow.
21 April - Mikhail Gorbachev announces that the Soviet Union is ready to dissolve the Warsaw Pact with the simultaneous dissolution of NATO.
26 April – Chernobyl disaster.

4 May – Rock-Panorama-86 festival opens in Moscow.
12 May – The Council of Ministers of the USSR introduces the State Acceptance of Production.
13 May – The 5th congress of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR is opened.
20 May – The designing of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus starts.

8 August – 1986 FIBA World Championship for Women opens in Minsk, Vilnius and Moscow.
31 August – Sinking of SS Admiral Nakhimov in the Black Sea, 423 deaths.

5 September – The Soviet leg of the World Chess Championship 1986 opens in Leningrad.
20 September – Two Internal Troops servicemen make an unsuccessful attempt to hijack Tu-134A aircraft in Ufa and flee to Pakistan.

5 October – Scientist and human rights advocate Yuri Orlov is freed from Siberian exile.
20 October – Aeroflot Flight 6502 crashes in Kuybyshev, killing 70.

6 November –, 44 are dead and about 100 are injured.
14 November – The Molodezhny department store in Moscow is robbed, 3 cash-in-transit workers are killed.
19 November – The law "On Individual Labor Activity" is adopted, approving the use of private enterprises to manufacture some consumer goods.
19 November – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issues an Appeal to Parliaments and People of the World about global nuclear disarmament.

1 December – Popular film Kin-dza-dza! is released.
16 December – Jeltoqsan riots spark in Alma-Ata.
19 December – Soviet authorities announce that Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner now can return to Moscow after a seven-year exile.

January 11 – Ilya Averbakh, Soviet film director
January 30 – Ivan Papanin, Soviet Polar explorer and twice Hero of the Soviet Union
February 4 – Jānis Kalnbērziņš, 1st First Secretary of the Communist Party of Latvia
March 23
*Anastasia Zuyeva, actress
*Lev Smirnov, 6th Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union
April 7 – Leonid Kantorovich, economist and Nobel Prize laureate
April 12 – Valentin Kataev, Soviet writer
April 20 – Aleksei Arbuzov, playwright
April 26– Valery Khodemchuk, Soviet engineer, working at Chernobyl reactor 4
May 6 – Sergei Simonov, Soviet weapons designer
May 11
* Vladimir Pravik, Soviet firefighter
* Aleksandr Akimov, Soviet engineer who was the shift supervisor during the events of the Chernobyl disaster
May 13 – Vasily Ignatenko, Soviet firefighter who responded to the Chernobyl disaster
May 26 – Vitaly Abalakov, Soviet alpinist
July 7 – Ivan Zhevago, Soviet theater and film actor
August 22 – Vali Akhundov, 11th First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party
August 23 – Mikhail Kuznetsov, Soviet actor
September 25 – Nikolay Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
November 8– Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician and diplomat
December 8 – Anatoly Marchenko, Soviet dissident and author
December 15 – Serge Lifar, Soviet dancer and choreographer
December 29 – Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian filmmaker, writer, and film theorist