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

• January 11 — Andres Tarand, 10th Prime Minister of Estonia
• January 17 — Mircea Snegur, 1st President of Moldova (d. 2023)
• January 18 — Alexander Almetov, Soviet and Russian ice hockey player (d. 1992)
• January 27 — Petru Lucinschi, 2nd President of Moldova
• January 30 — Leonid Polezhayev, 1st Governor of Omsk Oblast

February

• February 4 — Yuri Veksler, cinematographer (d. 1991)
• February 16 — Nikolai Kondratenko, 5th Governor of Krasnodar Krai (d. 2013)
• February 17 — Alexei Fridman, Soviet and Russian physicist (d. 2010)
• February 19 — Saparmurat Niyazov, 1st President of Turkmenistan (d. 2006)

March

• March 4 — Vladimir Morozov, sprint canoeist (d. 2023)
• March 7 — Viktor Savinykh, cosmonaut
• March 8 — Viktor Kalashnikov, 1st Governor of Voronezh Oblast (d. 2023)
• March 9 — Larisa Golubkina, actress
• March 16 — Vagif Mustafazadeh, jazz pianist and composer (d. 1979)
• March 20 — Igor Ryomin, football player (d. 1991)

May

• May 4 — Viktor Getmanov, football player (d. 1995)
• May 9 — Inna Gulaya, theatre and cinema actress (d. 1990)
• May 15 — Svetlana Svetlichnaya, Soviet and Russian actress
• May 24 — Joseph Brodsky, poet and essayist (d. 1996)
• May 28 — Valentin Gerasimov, 1st Governor of Kurgan Oblast

June

• June 8 — Vladimir Semyonov, 2nd Head of Karachay-Cherkessia
• June 13 — Valery Sudarenkov, 3rd Governor of Kaluga Oblast
• June 20 — Lyudmila Marchenko, Soviet and Russian film actress (d. 1997)
• June 26 — Vyacheslav Ionov, Soviet and Russian sprint canoeist (d. 2012)
• June 28 — Alina Vedmid, politician and agronomist (d. 2008)
• June 29 — Vyacheslav Artyomov, composer

July

• July 6 — Nursultan Nazarbayev, 1st President of Kazakhstan
• July 14 — Utkir Sultonov, 2nd Prime Minister of Uzbekistan (d. 2015)
• July 19 — Anzor Kavazashvili, football goalkeeper

August

• August 4 — Jamshed Karimov, 5th Prime Minister of Tajikistan
• August 6 — Mukhu Aliyev, 2nd Head of the Republic of Dagestan
• August 15 — Aleksandr Surikov, 3rd Governor of Altai Krai
• August 20 — Musa Geshaev, Chechen poet (d. 2014)
• August 31 — Gennady Vasilyev, Soviet and Russian film director (d. 1999)

September

• September 14 — Gennady Kuptsov, 1st Governor of Lipetsk Oblast
• September 18 — Lyudmila Davletova, engineer, technologist and stateswoman

October

• October 5
• Rein Aun, Estonian decathlete and coach (d. 1995)
• Viktor Pavlov, actor (d. 2006)
• October 9 — Valery Nosik, actor (d. 1995)
• October 18 — Aleksandr Starovoitov, Soviet and Russian security services and academic officer (d. 2021)
• October 20
• Hasan Hasanov, 1st Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
• Viktor Barannikov, 10th Minister of Interior Affairs of the Soviet Union (d. 1995)

November

• November 21 — Natalia Makarova, ballerina

December

• December 22 — Doku Zavgayev, Soviet and Russian diplomat and politician
• December 24 — Saylau Serikov, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR (d. 1991)

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)

See also

• 1940 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
• List of Soviet films of 1940

References

Further reading

• Bloch, Leon Bryce and Lamar Middleton, ed. The World Over in 1940 (1941) detailed coverage of world events online free; 914pp