1953 in the Soviet Union

Decades:	1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s;
See also:	History of the Soviet Union; List of years in the Soviet Union;

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

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.

May

May 26 – August 4 — Norilsk uprising

July

July 19 – August 1 — Vorkuta uprising

August

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

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)

References

↑ "Moscow's Formal Announcement of Stalin's Death". The New York Times. 1953-03-06. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
↑ William D. Pederson, "Norilsk Uprising of 1953," Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (Gulf Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1976) Vol. 25
↑ Bondaruk, Lesia (2015-10-29). "Finnish journalist's book on Vorkuta prison camp uprising". The Day (Den'). Retrieved 2019-09-06.
↑ "The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program". nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2023-01-22.
↑ Mesnyankin, Petr (July 27, 1999). "The Russian Atomic Bomb – 50 years – WebCite cache" (in Russian). Archived from the original on February 25, 2012.

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[1] "Moscow's Formal Announcement of Stalin's Death". The New York Times. 1953-03-06. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-30.

[2] William D. Pederson, "Norilsk Uprising of 1953," Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (Gulf Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1976) Vol. 25

[3] Bondaruk, Lesia (2015-10-29). "Finnish journalist's book on Vorkuta prison camp uprising". The Day (Den'). Retrieved 2019-09-06.

[4] "The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program". nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2023-01-22.

[RDS-4-5] Mesnyankin, Petr (July 27, 1999). "The Russian Atomic Bomb – 50 years – WebCite cache" (in Russian). Archived from the original on February 25, 2012.

v t e Years in Russia
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v t e 1953 in Asia
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Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Bahrain Brunei Colony of Aden Cyprus French India French Indochina Kuwait