← 1978 1977 1976 1979 in the Soviet Union → 1980 1981 1982
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 1979 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

• General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982)
• Premier of the Soviet Union: Alexei Kosygin (1964–1980)

Events

• 1979 Soviet economic reform^[1]
• Soviet–Afghan War

Births

• 19 January – Svetlana Khorkina, Russian artistic gymnast
• 22 January – Olga Dolzhykova, Ukrainian-Norwegian chess player and educator.^[2]
• 26 January - Artem Datsyshyn, Ukrainian ballet dancer (d. 2022)
• 1 February - Mikhail Rudkovskiy, former Russian professional football player
• 30 July - Denis Churkin, former Russian professional football player

Deaths

• 6 February – Issa Pliyev, military commander (born 1903)
• 18 March – Iskhak Razzakov, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kirghizia (1950-1961) (born 1910)
• 7 May – Aleksei Smirnov, actor (born 1920)
• 25 September – Yury Kovalyov, Soviet footballer (born 1934)