1953 in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1953 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

← 1952 1951 1950 1953 in the Soviet Union → 1954 1955 1956
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	History of the Soviet Union List of years in the Soviet Union

Amount of Ballistic missile launches by the Soviet Union in 1953

Incumbents

• First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union — Nikita Khrushchev (starting 14 September)
• Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union — Nikolay Shvernik (until 19 March), Kliment Voroshilov (starting 19 March)
• Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union — Joseph Stalin (until 5 March), Georgy Malenkov (starting 6 March)

Events

• Doctors' plot

March

• March 5 — Joseph Stalin dies, starting a power struggle among Soviet leadership.^[1]

May

• May 26 – August 4 — Norilsk uprising^[2]

July

• July 19 – August 1 — Vorkuta uprising^[3]

August

• August 12 — Joe 4, the first Soviet test of a thermonuclear weapon occurs.^[4]
• August 23 — RDS-4 is first tested.^[5]

Births

• January 3 — Ali Masimli, Acting Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
• January 5 — Vassily Solomin, boxer and Olympian (d. 1997)
• January 21 — Larisa Shoigu, Russian politician (d. 2021)
• January 23 — Pavlo Lazarenko, 5th Prime Minister of Ukraine
• January 31
  • Sergei Ivanov, 5th Minister of Defence of Russia
  • Aron Atabek, Kazakh writer and dissident (d. 2021)
• February 13 — Sergei Kapustin, ice hockey player (d. 1995)
• February 14 — Sergey Mironov, 3rd Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia
• February 24 — Georgy Poltavchenko, 3rd Governor of Saint Petersburg
• March 13 — Boris Zolotaryov, 2nd Governor of Evenk Autonomous Okrug
• April 8 — Alexander Berdnikov, 5th Head of the Altai Republic
• April 29 — Nikolai Budarin, Russian cosmonaut
• May 2 — Valery Gergiev, Russian conductor and opera company director
• May 3 — Salman Hashimikov, Soviet and Russian heavyweight wrestler
• May 6 — Aleksandr Akimov, engineer (d. 1986)
• May 9 — Valery Zubov, 2nd Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai (d. 2016)
• May 17 — Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 2nd President of Kazakhstan
• May 23 — Vyacheslav Shtyrov, 2nd Head of the Sakha Republic
• May 27 — Viktor Tolokonsky, 6th Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai
• May 29 — Aleksandr Abdulov, Soviet and Russian film and stage actor (d. 2008)
• June 23 — Armen Sarkissian, 4th President of Armenia
• June 24 — Ivo Lill, Estonian glass artist (d. 2019)
• June 29 — Ivan Malakhov, 4th Governor of Sakhalin Oblast
• July 19 — Zinovia Dushkova, Russian author
• July 28 — Vladimir Rushailo, 4th Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
• August 17 — Myktybek Abdyldayev, 10th Speaker of the Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan
• September 23 — Alexey Maslov, 2nd Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces (d. 2022)
• October 7 — Andrey Soloviev, war photographer (d. 1993)
• October 22 — Akaki Asatiani, 2nd Chairman of the Supreme Council of Georgia
• November 2 — Sergey Levchenko, 7th Governor of Irkutsk Oblast
• November 16 — Aleksandr Prokopenko, football player (d. 1989)
• November 27
  • Boris Grebenshchikov, Soviet and Russian rock musician
  • Aleksandr Torshin, Russian politician
• December 18 — Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen bard
• December 30 — Oleksandr Sviatotskyi, Ukrainian jurist

Deaths

• January 1 — Maksim Purkayev, military leader (b. 1894)
• February 13 — Lev Mekhlis, 9th Minister of State Control of the Soviet Union (b. 1889)
• March 5
  • Joseph Stalin, 2nd Leader of the Soviet Union (b. 1878)
  • Sergei Prokofiev, composer (b. 1891)
• March 23 — Oskar Luts, writer and playwright (b. 1887)
• May 4 — Nikolai Cholodny, microbiologist (b. 1882)
• May 31 — Vladimir Tatlin, painter and architect (b. 1885)
• June 30 — Vsevolod Pudovkin, film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1893)
• July 31 — Nikolay Zelinsky, chemist (b. 1861)
• August 1 — Jānis Mendriks, Roman Catholic priest (b. 1907)
• August 30 — Elena Rozmirovich, revolutionary and politician (b. 1886)
• October 6 — Vera Mukhina, sculptor and painter (b. 1889)
• November 8
  • Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, writer (b. 1870)
  • Zoya Rozhdestvenskaya, singer (b. 1906)
• December 23
  • Lavrentiy Beria, 3rd People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (b. 1899)
  • Vsevolod Merkulov, 10th Minister of State Control of the Soviet Union (b. 1895)
  • Bogdan Kobulov, senior member of Soviet security and police apparatus (b. 1904)

See also

• 1953 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
• List of Soviet films of 1953