1939 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1939 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

 * General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union – Joseph Stalin
 * Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Kalinin
 * Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union – Vyacheslav Molotov

Events

 * March 10–21 – 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
 * May 11 – September 16 – Battles of Khalkhin Gol
 * August 19 – German–Soviet Credit Agreement (1939)
 * August 23 – Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
 * September 17-October 6 – Soviet invasion of Poland
 * September 28 – Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty, also amendment to the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty
 * October 5 – Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty
 * October 10 – Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty
 * November 26 – Shelling of Mainila

Births

 * January 6 — Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Soviet and Ukrainian football player and manager (d. 2002)
 * January 22 — Mikhail Moiseyev, military officer and politician (d. 2022)
 * January 28
 * Viktor Shustikov, Russian footballer
 * Valeri Kosenkov, Russian actor (d. 2013)
 * January 31 — Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov, Russian actor and film director (d. 2012)
 * February 1 — Ekaterina Maximova, Soviet and Russian ballerina (d. 2009)
 * February 15 — Akbar Mirzoyev, 2nd Prime Minister of Tajikistan
 * March 8 — Lidiya Skoblikova, Soviet and Russian speed skater and coach
 * March 31 — Zviad Gamsakhurdia, 1st President of Georgia (d. 1993)
 * May 2 — Leonid Kanevsky, actor
 * May 19 — Kateryna Boloshkevich, Ukrainian weaver and statesperson (d. 2018)
 * May 20 — Roman Kartsev, Soviet and Russian actor (d. 2018)
 * May 26 — Merab Kostava, Georgian dissident, musician and poet (d. 1989)
 * May 30 — Mikhail Kolesnikov, 2nd Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (d. 2007)
 * July 7 — Elena Obraztsova, Soviet and Russian opera singer (d. 2015)
 * August 16 — Valery Ryumin, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2022)
 * July 14 — Utkir Tukhtamurodovich Sultonov, 2nd Prime Minister of Uzbekistan (d. 2015)
 * July 16 — Konstantin Kobets, State Adviser for the RSFSR for Defence (d. 2012)
 * August 28 — Vladimir Ivashov, Soviet and Russian actor (d. 1995)
 * September 5 — Suren Arutyunyan, 14th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia (d. 2019)
 * September 7 — Stanislav Petrov, Soviet Air Defence Forces official (d. 2017)
 * September 17 — Vladimir Menshov, actor and film director (d. 2021)
 * October 2 — Yuri Glazkov, Soviet Air Force officer and cosmonaut (d. 2008)
 * November 9 — Suimenkul Chokmorov, Kyrgyz film actor (d. 1992)
 * November 28 — Gennadi Volnov, Russian basketball player (d. 2008)
 * December 30 — Elena Tchaikovskaia, Russian figure skating coach and choreographer

Deaths

 * January 15 — Kullervo Manner, politician (b. 1880)
 * February 2 — Vladimir Shukhov, engineer (b. 1853)
 * February 22 — Grigory Khakhanyan, corps commander (b. 1896)
 * February 23
 * Pyotr Smirnov, naval officer and politician (b. 1897)
 * Alexander Yegorov, army officer (b. 1883)
 * February 26
 * Stanislav Kosior, politician (b. 1889)
 * Vlas Chubar, politician (b. 1891)
 * Pavel Postyshev, politician (b. 1887)
 * Ivan Fedko, army officer (b. 1897)
 * Levon Mirzoyan, politician (b. 1897)
 * February 27 — Nadezhda Krupskaya, revolutionary and wife of Vladimir Lenin (b. 1869)
 * March 3 — Georgy Bazilevich, corps commander (b. 1889)
 * March 7 — Matvei Berman, security officer (b. 1898)
 * March 10 — Georgy Bondar, corps commander (b. 1893)
 * April 1 — Anton Makarenko, educator and writer (b. 1888)
 * April 15 — Konstantin Petrovich Grigorovich, engineer and professor (b. 1886)
 * May 11
 * Polina Osipenko, military pilot (b. 1907)
 * Anatoly Serov, fighter pilot (b. 1910)
 * May 19 — Karl Radek, politician (b. 1885)
 * May 21 — Grigori Sokolnikov, economist and politician (b. 1888)
 * July 29 — Vilhelm Knorin, politician (b. 1890)
 * September 11 — Konstantin Korovin, painter (b. 1861)
 * October 7 — Boris Shchukin, actor (b. 1894)
 * December 25 — Ivan Dmitriyevich Borisov, military pilot (b. 1913)