# 1953 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1953 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

## Incumbents

* First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union — Nikita Khrushchev (starting 14 September)
* Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union — Nikolay Shvernik (until 19 March), Kliment Voroshilov (starting 19 March)
* Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union — Joseph Stalin (until 5 March), Georgy Malenkov (starting 6 March)

## Events

* Doctors' plot

### March

* March 5 — Joseph Stalin dies, starting a power struggle among Soviet leadership.

### May

* May 26 – August 4 — Norilsk uprising

### July

* July 19 – August 1 — Vorkuta uprising

### August

* August 12 — Joe 4, the first Soviet test of a thermonuclear weapon occurs.
* August 23 — RDS-4 is first tested.

## Births

* January 3 — Ali Masimli, Acting Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
* January 5 — Vassily Solomin, boxer and Olympian (d. 1997)
* January 21 — Larisa Shoigu, Russian politician (d. 2021)
* January 23 — Pavlo Lazarenko, 5th Prime Minister of Ukraine
* January 31
** Sergei Ivanov, 5th Minister of Defence of Russia
** Aron Atabek, Kazakh writer and dissident (d. 2021)
* February 13 — Sergei Kapustin, ice hockey player (d. 1995)
* February 14 — Sergey Mironov, 3rd Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia
* February 24 — Georgy Poltavchenko, 3rd Governor of Saint Petersburg
* March 13 — Boris Zolotaryov, 2nd Governor of Evenk Autonomous Okrug
* April 8 — Alexander Berdnikov, 5th Head of the Altai Republic
* April 29 — Nikolai Budarin, Russian cosmonaut
* May 2 — Valery Gergiev, Russian conductor and opera company director
* May 3 — Salman Hashimikov, Soviet and Russian heavyweight wrestler
* May 6 — Aleksandr Akimov, engineer (d. 1986)
* May 9 — Valery Zubov, 2nd Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai (d. 2016)
* May 17 — Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 2nd President of Kazakhstan
* May 23 — Vyacheslav Shtyrov, 2nd Head of the Sakha Republic
* May 27 — Viktor Tolokonsky, 6th Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai
* May 29 — Aleksandr Abdulov, Soviet and Russian film and stage actor (d. 2008)
* June 23 — Armen Sarkissian, 4th President of Armenia
* June 24 — Ivo Lill, Estonian glass artist (d. 2019)
* June 29 — Ivan Malakhov, 4th Governor of Sakhalin Oblast
* July 19 — Zinovia Dushkova, Russian author
* July 28 — Vladimir Rushailo, 4th Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
* August 17 — Myktybek Abdyldayev, 10th Speaker of the Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan
* September 23 — Alexey Maslov, 2nd Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces (d. 2022)
* October 7 — Andrey Soloviev, war photographer (d. 1993)
* October 22 — Akaki Asatiani, 2nd Chairman of the Supreme Council of Georgia
* November 2 — Sergey Levchenko, 7th Governor of Irkutsk Oblast
* November 16 — Aleksandr Prokopenko, football player (d. 1989)
* November 27
** Boris Grebenshchikov, Soviet and Russian rock musician
** Aleksandr Torshin, Russian politician
* December 18 — Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen bard
* December 30 — Oleksandr Sviatotskyi, Ukrainian jurist

## Deaths

* January 1 — Maksim Purkayev, military leader (b. 1894)
* February 13 — Lev Mekhlis, 9th Minister of State Control of the Soviet Union (b. 1889)
* March 5
** Joseph Stalin, 2nd Leader of the Soviet Union (b. 1878)
** Sergei Prokofiev, composer (b. 1891)
* March 23 — Oskar Luts, writer and playwright (b. 1887)
* May 4 — Nikolai Cholodny, microbiologist (b. 1882)
* May 31 — Vladimir Tatlin, painter and architect (b. 1885)
* June 30 — Vsevolod Pudovkin, film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1893)
* July 31 — Nikolay Zelinsky, chemist (b. 1861)
* August 1 — Jānis Mendriks, Roman Catholic priest (b. 1907)
* August 30 — Elena Rozmirovich, revolutionary and politician (b. 1886)
* October 6 — Vera Mukhina, sculptor and painter (b. 1889)
* November 8
** Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, writer (b. 1870)
** Zoya Rozhdestvenskaya, singer (b. 1906)
* December 23
** Lavrentiy Beria, 3rd People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (b. 1899)
** Vsevolod Merkulov, 10th Minister of State Control of the Soviet Union (b. 1895)
** Bogdan Kobulov, senior member of Soviet security and police apparatus (b. 1904)