# 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

## Events
### 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.

## Births
### 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)