1981 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1981 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

 * General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Leonid Brezhnev
 * Premier of the Soviet Union: Nikolai Tikhonov
 * Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union – Lev Smirnov

Events

 * 1 April – Daylight saving time was implemented for the first time in the USSR
 * 28 April – The USSR national team won the World Ice Hockey Championship in Sweden

Births

 * 31 January – Yulia Nachalova, singer (d. 2019)
 * 18 February – Andrei Kirilenko, basketball player
 * 19 March – Maksim Arap, footballer
 * 26 March – Danis Zaripov, ice hockey player
 * 30 March – Sergei Mozyakin, ice hockey player
 * 8 April – Nikolay Kruglov Jr., biathlete
 * 12 April – Yuriy Borzakovskiy, middle-distance runner
 * 17 April – Konstantin Koltsov, ice hockey player (d. 2024)
 * 30 April – Peter Nalitch, singer
 * 29 May – Andrey Arshavin, footballer
 * 2 June – Nikolay Davydenko, tennis player
 * 7 June – Anna Kournikova, tennis player
 * 26 June – Natalya Antyukh, athlete
 * 6 July – Roman Shirokov, footballer
 * 8 July – Anastasia Myskina, tennis player
 * 30 August – Daniil Vorobyov, film and theatre actor
 * 2 September – Aleksey Chadov, film actor
 * 3 September – Evgeniya Brik, actress (d. 2022)
 * 15 October – Marina Toybina, fashion and costume designer
 * 31 October – Irina Denezhkina, writer
 * 2 November – Tatiana Totmianina, pair skater
 * 5 November – Ksenia Sobchak, political figure
 * 30 November – Olga Krasko, actress
 * 15 December – Roman Pavlyuchenko, footballer
 * 16 December – Olga Medynich, theater and film actress
 * 23 December – Anastasiya Makeyeva, actress and model
 * 24 December – Dima Bilan, singer, songwriter

Deaths

 * February 7 — Emil Spiridonov, navy officer (b. 1925)
 * March 3 — Oleg Dal, actor (b. 1941)
 * March 7 — Kirill Kondrashin, conductor (b. 1914)
 * March 21 — Mark Donskoy (b. 1901)
 * March 28 — Yuri Trifonov, leading representative of the so-called Soviet "Urban Prose" (b. 1925)
 * April 1 — Agniya Barto, poet and writer (b. 1901)
 * April 16 — Leonid Melnykov, politician and diplomat (b. 1906)
 * April 28
 * Lev Loktev, artillery designer (b. 1908)
 * Grigory Shpigel, actor (b. 1914)
 * August 27 — Valeri Kharlamov, ice hockey player (b. 1948)
 * November 18 — Alexey Okladnikov, archaeologist and ethnographer (b. 1908)
 * November 30 — Tankho Israilov, ballet dancer (b. 1917)
 * December 4 — Valentin Fyodorov, football player and coach (b. 1911)
 * December 11 — Zoya Fyodorova, actress (b. 1907)
 * December 15 — Mikhail Zharov, actor and director (b. 1899)