1938 in the Soviet Union

Decades:	; 1920s; 1930s; 1940s; 1950s;
See also:	History of the Soviet Union; List of years in the Soviet Union;

The following lists events that happened during 1938 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Incumbents edit

March – Trial of the Twenty-One
15 March – The Soviet Union announces officially that Nikolai Bukharin has been executed.
29 July–11 August – Battle of Lake Khasan
2 September – Soviet Ambassador to Britain Ivan Maisky calls on Winston Churchill, telling him that Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov has expressed to the French chargé d'affaires in Moscow that the Soviet Union is willing to fight over the territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia.
unknown date – Family plots produce 22% of all Soviet agricultural produce, on only 4% of all cultivated land.

January 2 – Anatoly Samoilenko, Ukrainian mathematician (died 2020)
January 8 – Yevgeny Nesterenko, Russian operatic bass (died 2021)
January 18 – Stepan Topal, Moldovan politician (died 2018)
February 24 – Emma Gapchenko, archer^[1]
March 2 – Vyacheslav Zaitsev, Russian fashion designer (died 2023)
March 17 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer, choreographer (died 1993)
June 9 – Tengiz Kitovani, Georgian politician military commander (died 2023 in Georgia)
June 24 – Boris Lagutin, boxer (died 2022)
July 9 – Liya Akhedzhakova, Russian actress
July 10 – Vera Shebeko, Russian anchorwoman
July 14 – Lillian Malkina, Russian actress
July 18 – Valery Kerdemelidi, Russian artistic gymnast
July 21 – Vladimir Radionov, Russian football player, coach and official
July 22 – Mark Rakita, Russian sabreur and coach
August 9 – Oleksandr Omelchenko, Ukrainian politician, Mayor of Kyiv (died 2021)
August 19 – Valentin Mankin, Ukrainian Soviet sailor, Olympic triple champion and silver medalist (died 2014)
October 10 – Oleg Gordievsky, Russian double agent
November 11 – Ants Antson, Estonian speed skater (died 2015)

January 22 – Sergei Buturlin, Soviet ornithologist (b. 1872)
February 8
- Mikhail Batorsky, Soviet komkor (executed) (b. 1890)^[2]
- Nikolai Kuzmin, Soviet political and military leader (executed) (b. 1883)
March 15 – Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Nikolay Krestinsky, Genrikh Yagoda, Arkady Rosengolts, Vladimir Ivanov, Mikhail Alexandrovich Chernov, Hryhoriy Hrynko, Fayzulla Khodzhayev and Vasily Sharangovich^{[citation needed]}
June 20 – Nikolai Janson, Russian politician (shot)
July 28 – Yakov Alksnis
July 29 – Pavel Dybenko
August 16 – Sergey Aydarov, actor (b. 1867)
August 22 – Eduard Lepin, Latvian-born Soviet general (b. 1889)
November 9 – Vasily Blyukher
December 15 – Valery Chkalov, test pilot (b. 1904)^[3]
December 27 – Osip Mandelstam, poet (b. 1891)^[4]

^ "Emma GAPCHENKO - Olympic Archery | USSR". International Olympic Committee. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
^ Likhotvorik, Alexey (5 February 2017). "Баторский Михаил Александрович" [Batorsky Mikhail Alexandrovich]. www.grwar.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-03-19.
^ Bergman, Jay (1998). "Valerii Chkalov: Soviet Pilot as New Soviet Man". Journal of Contemporary History. 33 (1): 135–152. doi:10.1177/003200949803300108. JSTOR 261001. S2CID 157937639.
^ Izvestia, 8 January 1991. Reproduced according to ed. – Osip Mandelstam and his time: Sat. memories. – Publisher L'Age d'Homme – Nash Dom, 1995 480 p. – p. 402. [1]