The following lists events that happened during 1966 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Incumbents
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union:
Leonid Brezhnev
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union:
Nikolai Podgorny
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union:
Alexei Kosygin
Events February February 3 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon. February 10 – Soviet fiction writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to five and seven years, respectively, for "anti-Soviet" writings. February 20 – While Soviet author and translator Valery Tarsis is abroad, the Soviet Union negates his citizenship.
March March 1 - Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface. March 29 – The 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held: Leonid Brezhnev demands that U.S. troops leave Vietnam, and announces that Chinese-Soviet relations are not satisfactory. March 31 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
April April 8 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Union, as well as Leader of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. April 27 – Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican (the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union).
May May 4 - Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.
July July 16 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about the Vietnam War (the Soviet government rejects his ideas).
October October 7 – The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October. October 11 – France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty for cooperation in nuclear research.
Births 3 March – Mikhail Mishustin, Prime Minister of Russia 15 August – Marat Minibayev, former Russian professional footballer 17 July - Taras Nahorniak, Ukrainian geographer
Deaths January 14 – Sergei Korolev, rocket engineer and spacecraft designer (b. 1907) March 5 – Anna Akhmatova, poet (b. 1889) May 7 – Usman Yusupov, 7th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan (b. 1901) September 14 – Nikolay Cherkasov, actor (b. 1903) September 19 – Vladimir Fyodorov, scientist and general (b. 1874) October 17 – Zhumabay Shayakhmetov, 4th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (b. 1902) October 28 – Nikolai Belyaev, 8th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (b. 1903) November 14 – Nikolai Ignatov, 6th & 8th Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR (b. 1901) December 19 – Betty Kuuskemaa, Estonian stage and film actress (b. 1879) December 31 – Elena Stasova, Russian Soviet Revolutionary and Old Bolshevik (b. 1873)
See also 1966 in fine arts of the Soviet Union List of Soviet films of 1966
References