← 1977 1976 1975 1978 in the Soviet Union → 1979 1980 1981
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 1978 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents

• General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Leonid Brezhnev
• Premier of the Soviet Union: Alexei Kosygin
• Chairman of the Russian SFSR: Mikhail Solomentsev

Events

Deaths

• 17 February – Artemiy Artsikhovsky, Soviet archaeologist and historian (born 1902)
• 1 May – Aram Khachaturian, Soviet-Armenian composer and conductor (born 1903)
• 26 May – Tamara Karsavina, Soviet ballerina (born 1885)
• 24 June – Mstislav Keldysh, Soviet mathematician (born 1911)
• 17 July – Fyodor Kulakov, Soviet statesman (born 1918)
• 22 July – Mikhail Pervukhin, Soviet official during Stalin and Khrushchev era (born 1904)
• 31 July – Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich of Russia (b. 1902)
• 27 September – Sergei Aslamazyan, Soviet composer (born 1897)
• 21 October – Anastas Mikoyan, Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman (born 1895)
• 23 October – Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia (born 1896)

See also

• 1978 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
• List of Soviet films of 1978