1979 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1979 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

1979 Soviet economic reform{{cite web | author = ютуба, любитель | title = 30 лет назад умер Алексей Косыгин |trans-title=A reformer before Yegor Gaidar? Kosygin died for 30 years ago | language = ru | work = Newsland | url = http://newsland.ru/news/detail/id/602062/cat/94/ | access-date = 29 December 2010 | date = 17 December 2010 }}
SALT II Treaty
Soviet–Afghan War

19 January – Svetlana Khorkina, Russian artistic gymnast
22 January – Olga Dolzhykova, Ukrainian-Norwegian chess player and educator.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Olga Dolzjikova |first=Sheila |last=Stanford |encyclopedia=Store norske leksikon |editor-last=Bolstad | editor-first=Erik | editor-link= |publisher=Norsk nettleksikon |location=Oslo |url=https://snl.no/Olga_Dolzjikova |language=Norwegian |accessdate=31 December 2022}}
26 January - Artem Datsyshyn, Ukrainian ballet dancer (d. 2022)
1 February - Mikhail Rudkovskiy, former Russian professional football player
10 April - Yelena Podkaminskaya, Russian actress
30 July - Denis Churkin, former Russian professional football player

February 6 — Issa Pliyev, military commander (b. 1903)
March 19 — Iskhak Razzakov, 4th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kirghizia (b. 1910)
April 16 — Anatoly Kharlampiyev, founder of sambo (b. 1906)
April 19 — Aleksandra Troitskaya, microbiologist-leprologist (b. 1896)
April 27 — Nikolai Vinogradov, navy officer (b. 1905)
May 7 — Aleksei Smirnov, actor (b. 1920)
July 1 — Vsevolod Bobrov, athlete (b. 1922)
July 2 — Larisa Shepitko, film director and screenwriter (b. 1938)
August 12 — Joseph Serebriany, painter and stage decorator (b. 1907)
September 25 — Yury Kovalyov, Soviet footballer (b. 1934)
December 16 — Vagif Mustafazadeh, jazz pianist and composer (b. 1940)