1986 in the Soviet Union

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

Incumbents

 * General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev
 * Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet – Andrei Gromyko
 * Premier of the Soviet Union – Nikolai Ryzhkov
 * Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union – Vladimir Terebilov

January

 * 25 January – Mikhail Gorbachev proposes a 15-year plan on abolition of nuclear weapons.

February

 * 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.

March

 * 1 March – 1986 Soviet Top League is inaugurated.
 * 13 March
 * Soyuz T-15 is launched at the Gagarin's Start.
 * 1986 Black Sea incident: American cruiser USS Yorktown and the destroyer USS Caron, claiming the right of innocent passage, enter the Soviet territorial waters near the southern Crimean Peninsula.

April

 * 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.

May

 * 4 May – Rock-Panorama-86 festival opens in Moscow.
 * 12 May – The Council of Ministers of the USSR introduces the State Acceptance of Production (gospriyomka).
 * 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.

June

 * 3 June – IX Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR opens.
 * 28 June – Antonov An-12 of the Soviet Air Forces crashes in Yeysk, killing 10.

July

 * 2 July – Aeroflot Flight 2306 crashes in Komi ASSR, killing 54.
 * 5 July – 1986 Goodwill Games are inaugurated in Moscow.

August

 * 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.

September

 * 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.

October

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

November

 * 6 November – Koristovka train collision, 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.

December

 * 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

 * 1 January – Victoria Amelina, Ukrainian novelist (d. 2023)
 * 4 January – Andrei Krauchanka, Belarusian decathlete
 * 5 January – Yana Shemyakina, Ukrainian Olympic champion in fencing
 * 6 January
 * Yuliya Chermoshanskaya, Russian Olympic 4x100 metre relay champion
 * Irina Shayk, model and television personality
 * 15 January – Mariya Abakumova, Russian javelin thrower

March

 * 17 March – Olesya Rulin, Russian American actress

April

 * 8 April – Igor Akinfeev, Russian goalkeeper
 * 11 April – Tatiana Kosintseva, Russian chess Grandmaster
 * 27 April – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player

May

 * 13 May – Alexander Rybak, Norwegian singer

June

 * 12 June – Stanislava Komarova, Russian swimmer

July

 * 22 July - Olha Bura, Ukrainian activist
 * 31 July – Evgeni Malkin, Russian ice hockey player

September

 * 3 September – Valdas Vasylius, Lithuanian basketball player
 * 9 September – Katy Topuria, Georgian singer

October

 * 16 October – Igor Mangushev, Russian mercenary leader (died 2023)
 * 21 October – Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Chechen terrorist (died 2013)

Deaths

 * January 11 – Ilya Averbakh, Soviet film director (b. 1934)
 * January 30 – Ivan Papanin, Soviet Polar explorer and twice Hero of the Soviet Union (b. 1894)
 * February 4 – Jānis Kalnbērziņš, 1st First Secretary of the Communist Party of Latvia (b. 1893)
 * March 23
 * Anastasia Zuyeva, actress (b. 1896)
 * Lev Smirnov, 6th Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union (b. 1911)
 * April 7 – Leonid Kantorovich, economist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
 * April 12 – Valentin Kataev, Soviet writer (b. 1897)
 * April 20 – Aleksei Arbuzov, playwright (b. 1908)
 * April 26– Valery Khodemchuk, Soviet engineer, working at Chernobyl reactor 4 (b. 1951)
 * May 6 – Sergei Simonov, Soviet weapons designer (b. 1894)
 * May 11
 * Vladimir Pravik, Soviet firefighter (b. 1962)
 * Aleksandr Akimov, Soviet engineer who was the shift supervisor during the events of the Chernobyl disaster (b. 1953)
 * May 13 – Vasily Ignatenko, Soviet firefighter who responded to the Chernobyl disaster (b. 1961)
 * May 26 – Vitaly Abalakov, Soviet alpinist (b. 1906)
 * July 7 – Ivan Zhevago, Soviet theater and film actor (b. 1912)
 * August 22 – Vali Akhundov, 11th First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (b. 1916)
 * August 23 – Mikhail Kuznetsov, Soviet actor (b. 1918)
 * September 25 – Nikolay Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
 * November 8– Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician and diplomat (b. 1890)
 * December 8 – Anatoly Marchenko, Soviet dissident and author (b. 1938)
 * December 15 – Serge Lifar, Soviet dancer and choreographer (b. 1905)
 * December 29 – Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian filmmaker, writer, and film theorist (b. 1932)