1961 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1961 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

 * First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Nikita Khrushchev
 * Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union - Leonid Brezhnev
 * Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union - Nikita Khrushchev

Births

 * 30 March - Sergei Nozikov, former Russian professional footballer
 * 1 June - Yevgeny Prigozhin, mercenary chief

Deaths

 * 4 October - Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), Soviet Orthodox missionary and writer, Exarch of Russian Church in North America (b. 1880)

Events

 * 1 September - first of the 1961 Soviet nuclear tests
 * 13 September - Exhibition of Leningrad artists
 * 5 November - 1961 Elbarusovo school fire killed 110 students and teachers.