1940 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1940 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.Bloch, Leon Bryce and Lamar Middleton, ed. The World Over in 1940 (1941) detailed coverage of world events [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.156775 online free]; 914pp

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){{cite web|title=Ведмідь Аліна Петрівна|trans-title=Vedmid Alina Petrovna|url=http://www.lider-regiona.kherson.ua/kiev/vedmid.htm|publisher=Leaders of the Regions|language=uk|access-date=1 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315235345/http://www.lider-regiona.kherson.ua/kiev/vedmid.htm|archive-date=15 March 2011}}
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

=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)

=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)