1978 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1978 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

14 April – 1978 Georgian demonstrations
20 April – The Soviet Air Force shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902, a civilian airliner That flew into Soviet airspace.{{Cite web |last=Swopes |first=Bryan |date=2023-04-20 |title=Korean Air Lines Flight 902 {{!}} This Day in Aviation |url=https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/korean-air-lines-flight-902/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |language=en-US}}
25 April – 18th Komsomol Congress

21 June – 1978 Iranian Chinook shootdown: 2 Boeing CH-47 Chinook belonging to the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces strayed into Soviet airspace over the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic during a training mission, resulting in the Shootdown of both aircraft by the Soviet Air Forces.{{Cite news |date=1978-07-18 |title=Soviet Downs Iranian Helicopter After It Strays, Killing the Crew |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/18/archives/soviet-downs-iranian-helicopter-after-it-strays-killing-the-crew.html |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

28 September – one of the last Forest Brother guerilla movement fighter August Sabbe was discovered and killed in Estonia.

January 18 — Ivan Dzerzhinsky, composer (b. 1909)
February 17 — Artemiy Artsikhovsky, archaeologist and historian (b. 1902)
February 19 — Mikhail Zakharov, navy officer (b. 1912)
April 4 — Semyon Kirlian, Russian inventor (b. 1898)
April 28 — Roman Karmen, film director, war cinematographer, documentary filmmaker, journalist, screenwriter, pedagogue and publicist (b. 1906)
May 1 — Aram Khachaturian, composer and conductor (b. 1903)
May 26 — Tamara Karsavina, ballerina (b. 1885)
June 24 — Mstislav Keldysh, mathematician (b. 1911)
July 17 — Fyodor Kulakov, statesman (b. 1918)
July 22 — Mikhail Pervukhin, statesman (b. 1904)
July 31 — Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich of Russia (b. 1902)
September 5 — Nikodim Rotov, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod (b. 1929)
September 27 — Sergei Aslamazyan, composer (b. 1897)
September 28 – August Sabbe, Estonian anti-communist of the Forest Brother (b. 1909)
October 18 — Ramón Mercader, Spanish communist and NKVD agent (b. 1913)
October 21 — Anastas Mikoyan, statesman (b. 1895)
October 23 — Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia (b. 1896)
December 18 — Lev Uspensky, writer and philologist (b. 1900)
December 30 — Mark Naimark, mathematician (b. 1909)