The Soviet Union (USSR) competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
The Soviet Olympians participated in six out of 8 sports disciplines except for bobsleigh and ice figure skating. The Soviet Union Olympic team consisted of 53 athletes and represented 11 cities from 4 union republics. The team was awarded 16 medals (7 gold, 3 silver, and 6 bronze) and placed first among all participating nations in the medal table. The closest runner-up, Austria, was awarded 11 medals.
Pavel Kolchin became the first Soviet athlete to be awarded a medal at the Winter Olympics. The first Soviet gold medal was awarded to Lyubov Kozyreva, and later the same day, another gold was awarded to Yevgeny Grishin.
In the following table for team events number of team representatives, who received medals are counted, not "one medal for all the team", as usual. Because there were people from different republics in one team.