1966 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1966 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

February 3 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.{{cite book|url=https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf|title=Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016|pages=1–2|last1=Siddiqi|first1=Asif A.|lccn=2017059404|isbn=9781626830424|publisher=NASA History Program Office|edition=second |year=2018|id=SP2018-4041|series=The NASA history series|location=Washington, D.C.}}
February 10 – Soviet fiction writers Yuli Daniel{{cite news|title=Soviet dissident Yuli Daniel; imprisoned for publishing abroad|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-01-mn-324-story.html|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=1 January 1989}} 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.{{cite book|author=Voren, Robert van|title=Cold War in psychiatry: human factors, secret actors|year=2010|publisher=Rodopi|location=Amsterdam—New York|isbn=978-90-420-3046-6|page=140|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ru3-kQAACAAJ}}{{rp|140}}

March 1 - Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.{{cite book |last=Harvey |first=Brian |date=2007 |title=Russian Planetary Exploration History, Development, Legacy and Prospects|publisher=Springer-Praxis |pages=94–97 |isbn=9780387463438 }}
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.{{cite book|author=Christian F. Ostermann|title=Inside China's Cold War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5IjzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA370|year=2008|publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars|pages=370}}
March 31 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.{{cite book |url=https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf|title=Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016|page=1|last1=Siddiqi|first1=Asif A.|lccn=2017059404 |isbn=9781626830424|publisher=NASA History Program Office|edition=second|year=2018|id=SP2018-4041|series=The NASA history series|location=Washington, D.C.}}

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).{{cite book | author = O'Sullivan, John | title = The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World | publisher = Regnery Publishing | year = 2009 | pages = 94–5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EnMVq0jcIUEC | isbn = 978-1-59698-016-7 }}

May 4 - Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.

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 7 – The Soviet Union declares that all Chinese students must leave the country before the end of October.{{cite news |title=Search IHT Retrospective SEARCH IN OUR PAGES 1966: Russia Expels Chinese |url=https://iht-retrospective.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/1966-russia-expels-chinese/ |access-date=23 March 2022 |agency=International Herald Tribune |work=The New York Times |date=October 7, 1966}}
October 11 – France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty for cooperation in nuclear research.