1981 in the Soviet Union

← 1980 1979 1978 1981 in the Soviet Union → 1982 1983 1984
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	History of the Soviet Union List of years in the Soviet Union

The following lists events that happened during 1981 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

• General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Leonid Brezhnev
• Premier of the Soviet Union: Nikolai Tikhonov
• Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union – Lev Smirnov

• 1 April – Daylight saving time was implemented for the first time in the USSR^[1]
• 28 April – The USSR national team won the World Ice Hockey Championship in Sweden^[2]

• 31 January – Yulia Nachalova, singer (d. 2019)
• 18 February – Andrei Kirilenko, basketball player
• 19 March – Maksim Arap, footballer
• 26 March – Danis Zaripov, ice hockey player
• 30 March – Sergei Mozyakin, ice hockey player
• 8 April – Nikolay Kruglov Jr., biathlete
• 12 April – Yuriy Borzakovskiy, middle-distance runner
• 17 April – Konstantin Koltsov, ice hockey player (d. 2024)
• 30 April – Peter Nalitch, singer
• 29 May – Andrey Arshavin, footballer^[3]
• 2 June – Nikolay Davydenko, tennis player
• 7 June – Anna Kournikova, tennis player
• 26 June – Natalya Antyukh, athlete
• 6 July – Roman Shirokov, footballer
• 8 July – Anastasia Myskina, tennis player
• 30 August – Daniil Vorobyov, film and theatre actor
• 2 September – Aleksey Chadov, film actor
• 3 September – Evgeniya Brik, actress (d. 2022)
• 15 October – Marina Toybina, fashion and costume designer
• 31 October – Irina Denezhkina, writer
• 2 November – Tatiana Totmianina, pair skater
• 5 November – Ksenia Sobchak, political figure
• 30 November – Olga Krasko, actress
• 15 December – Roman Pavlyuchenko, footballer
• 16 December – Olga Medynich, theater and film actress
• 23 December – Anastasiya Makeyeva, actress and model
• 24 December – Dima Bilan, singer, songwriter

• February 7 — Emil Spiridonov, navy officer (b. 1925)
• March 3 — Oleg Dal, actor (b. 1941)
• March 7 — Kirill Kondrashin, conductor (b. 1914)
• March 21 — Mark Donskoy (b. 1901)
• March 28 — Yuri Trifonov, leading representative of the so-called Soviet "Urban Prose" (b. 1925)
• April 1 — Agniya Barto, poet and writer (b. 1901)
• April 16 — Leonid Melnykov, politician and diplomat (b. 1906)
• April 28
  • Lev Loktev, artillery designer (b. 1908)
  • Grigory Shpigel, actor (b. 1914)
• August 27 — Valeri Kharlamov, ice hockey player (b. 1948)
• November 18 — Alexey Okladnikov, archaeologist and ethnographer (b. 1908)
• November 30 — Tankho Israilov, ballet dancer (b. 1917)
• December 4 — Valentin Fyodorov, football player and coach (b. 1911)
• December 11 — Zoya Fyodorova, actress (b. 1907)
• December 15 — Mikhail Zharov, actor and director (b. 1899)

List of Soviet films of 1981

1981 in fine arts of the Soviet Union