1940 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1940 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

Births

 * January 17 – Mircea Snegur, 1st President of Moldova (d. 2023)
 * January 27 – Petru Lucinschi, 2nd President of Moldova
 * February 19 – Saparmurat Niyazov, 1st President of Turkmenistan (d. 2006)
 * March 4 – Vladimir Morozov, sprint canoeist (d. 2023)
 * March 7 – Viktor Savinykh, cosmonaut
 * March 9 – Larisa Golubkina, actress
 * May 24 – Joseph Brodsky, poet and essayist (d. 1996)
 * June 28 – Alina Vedmid, politician and agronomist (d. 2008)
 * June 29 – Vyacheslav Artyomov, composer
 * July 6 – Nursultan Nazarbayev, 1st President of Kazakhstan
 * July 19 – Anzor Kavazashvili, football goalkeeper
 * August 20 – Musa Geshaev, Chechen poet (d. 2014)
 * October 5
 * Rein Aun, Estonian decathlete and coach (d. 1995)
 * Viktor Pavlov, actor (d. 2006)
 * October 9 – Valery Nosik, actor (d. 1995)
 * October 20
 * Hasan Hasanov, 1st Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
 * Viktor Barannikov, Soviet and Russian Interior Minister (d. 1995)

Deaths

 * January 27 – Isaac Babel, writer, journalist playwright and literary translator (b. 1894)
 * February 2
 * Vsevolod Meyerhold, theatre director, actor and theatrical producer (b. 1874)
 * Robert Eikhe, politician (b. 1890)
 * Mikhail Koltsov, journalist, revolutionary and NKVD agent (b. 1898)
 * February 4
 * Nikolai Yezhov, Head of NKVD (b. 1895)
 * Mikhail Frinovsky, secret police official (b. 1898)
 * March 10 – Mikhail Bulgakov, writer, medical doctor and playwright (b. 1891)
 * August 21 – Leon Trotsky, politician and political theorist (b. 1879)
 * December 2 – Nikolai Koltsov, biologist (b. 1872)