1989 in the Soviet Union

← 1988 1987 1986 1989 in the Soviet Union → 1990 1991 1992
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 1989 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

• President of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev
• General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev
• Chairman of the Supreme Soviet – Mikhail Gorbachev
• Vice President of the Soviet Union – Anatoly Lukyanov
• Premier of the Soviet Union – Nikolai Ryzhkov

Events

Whole Year: Revolutions of 1989

• January to 15 February – Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• 6 February — Negotiations between the Polish government and the union ‘Solidarity’ opened.
• 27 March – 1989 Soviet Union legislative election: first contested elections in Soviet History.
• 9 April – April 9 tragedy; a pro-independence demonstration in Tbilisi was put down by Soviet authorities, resulting in the deaths of 21 people.
• 18 May – Lithuania declares sovereignty over all of its territory.
• 25 May – Gorbachev becomes Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
• 23 August — Two million people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania join hands to form the Baltic Way in the Singing Revolution.
• 24 September – Lithuania declares 1940 annexation by the Soviet Union to be null and void.
• 9 November — Soviet power in Eastern Europe collapses with the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
• 28 November — Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces the end of its monopoly of power, in the Velvet Revolution.
• 7 December — Lithuanian parliament announces the end of the political monopoly of the Communist Party of Lithuania, in the Singing Revolution.
• 25 December —Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife and captured and executed, in the Romanian revolution.

Births

• January 14 — Inna Afinogenova, journalist
• February 17 —Azat Bayryev, football player

Deaths

• January 3 — Sergei Sobolev, mathematician (b. 1908)
• January 10 — Valentin Glushko, engineer, program manager of the Soviet space program (b. 1908)
• January 24 — Sasha Putrya, Ukrainian artist (b. 1977)
• January 27 — Vasily Konovalenko, artist (gemstone sculptures) (b. 1929)
• February 2 — Yuri Bogatyryov, actor (b. 1947)
• February 7 — Simon Virsaladze, ballet, film and opera designer (b. 1909)
• February 20 — Aleksandr Medvedkin, film director (b. 1900)
• February 21 — Otar Taktakishvili, Georgian composer and conductor (b. 1924)
• March 3 — Vytautas Viciulis, Lithuanian painter (b. 1951)
• March 4 — Victor Nikiforov, ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist (b. 1931)
• March 8 — Elisaveta Bykova, chess player and dual Women's World Chess Champion (b. 1913)
• March 26 — Maris Liepa, Latvian ballet dancer (b. 1936)
• March 29 — Aleksandr Prokopenko, football player (b. 1953)
• April 10 — Nikolai Grinko, actor (b. 1920)
• April 22 — Dmitry Selivanov, rock singer (b. 1964)
• May 2 — Veniamin Kaverin, writer and dramatist (b. 1902)
• May 4 — Lydia Pasternak Slater, research chemist and poet (b. 1902)
• May 8 — Hendrik Allik, Estonian politician (b. 1901)
• May 14 — Nikifor Kalchenko, politician (b. 1906)
• May 23 — Georgy Tovstonogov, theatre director (b. 1915)
• May 27 — Arseny Tarkovsky, poet and translator (b. 1907)
• June 9
  • Rashid Behbudov, singer and actor (b. 1915)
  • Vladimir Kasatonov, military leader and fleet admiral (b. 1910)
  • Piotr Vasiliev, realist painter (b. 1909)
• June 10 — Suleyman Rustam, poet, playwright and translator (b. 1906)
• June 19
  • Betti Alver, Estonian poet (b. 1906)
  • Yevgeny Kabanov, Naval Aviation major general (b. 1918)
  • Andrey Prokofyev, sprinter and Olympic gold medalist (b. 1959)
• June 21 — Aleksandr Safronov, speed skater and Olympian (b. 1952)
• June 30 — Rostislav Plyatt, stage and film actor (b. 1908)
• July 1 — Victor Nekipelov, poet and writer (b. 1928)
• July 2 — Andrei Gromyko, politician and diplomat, 9th Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (b. 1909)
• July 4 — Leyla Mammadbeyova, first Azerbaijani female aviator (b. 1909)
• August 25 — Yan Frankel, composer and performer (b. 1920)
• September 7 — Valery Goborov, basketball player and Olympic gold medalist (b. 1966)
• October 13 — Merab Kostava, Georgian dissident, musician and poet (b. 1939)
• October 14 — Klavdiya Mayuchaya, javelin thrower and European champion (b. 1918)
• October 15 — Tadevos Hakobyan, Armenian historian and geographer (b. 1917)
• October 17 — Mark Krein, mathematician (b. 1907)
• October 28 — Yuliya Solntseva, actress and film director (b. 1901)
• November 7 — Andrey Borovykh, World War II flying ace and twice Hero of the Soviet Union (b. 1921)
• November 14 — Samand Siabandov, writer, soldier and politician (b. 1909)
• November 22 — Shamil Serikov, wrestler and Olympic gold medalist (b. 1956)
• November 28 — Georgy Ilivitsky, chess master (b. 1921)
• November 29 — Natan Eidelman, author and historian (b. 1930)
• December 1 — Nikolai Patolichev, politician, Soviet Minister of Foreign Trade (b. 1908)
• December 3 — Alexander Obukhov, physicist and applied mathematician (b. 1918)
• December 5 — Sofiya Kalistratova, lawyer and human rights activist (b. 1907)
• December 7 — Vadim Spiridonov, film actor and director (b. 1944)
• December 8 — Mykola Livytskyi, Ukrainian politician, prime minister and president of the Ukrainian People's Republic in-exile
• December 14
  • Ants Eskola, actor (b. 1908)
  • Andrei Sakharov, nuclear physicist, dissident, human rights activist and Nobel laureate in Physics, dilated cardiomyopathy (b. 1921)
• December 19 — Kirill Mazurov, politician, 19th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (b. 1914)
• December 28 — Pavel Kurochkin, army general (b. 1900)

See also

• 1989 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
• List of Soviet films of 1980-91