← 1970 1969 1968 1971 in the Soviet Union → 1972 1973 1974
Decades:	1950s 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 1971 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

• General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Leonid Brezhnev^[1]
• Premier of the Soviet Union: Nikolai Bulganin
• Chairman of the Russian SFSR: Mikhail Yasnov

Events

January

• January 1 - Veronika Mavrikievna and Avdotya Nikitichna, a comic variety duet of actors, appear in the telecast 'Terem-Teremok'.^[2]

April

• April 19 - The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1.^[3]

Births

• February 27 - Zaal Udumashvili, Georgian politician
• April 21 - Valentin Morkov, Russian professional football coach and a former player

Deaths

• January 10 - Nadezhda Peshkova, artist (born 1901)
• January 31 – Viktor Zhirmunsky, literary historian and linguist (born 1891)
• April 12 – Igor Tamm, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895)
• April 29 – Nikolai Barabashov, Ukrainian astronomer (born 1894)
• June 18 - Vladimir Biryukov, lexicographer (born 1888)
• July 22 - Roman Mashkov, military intelligence officer (born 1922)^[4]
• September 11 - Nikita Khrushchev, former First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (born 1894)
• September 28 - Vasily Butusov, footballer (born 1892)
• October 17 – Sergey Kavtaradze, Soviet politician and diplomat (born 1885)