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The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (Russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу: Высшая лига, romanized: Vyschaya Liga),[1] served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and governed by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The full official name was the USSR Championship in football: Top League. An attempt to create an independent league as autonomously governed organization during "perestroika" period was denied by the Federation due to political culture in the Soviet Union.
| Founded | 22 May 1936 (as Group A) |
|---|---|
| Folded | 1991 |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Divisions | 1 |
| Number of clubs | Various |
| Level on pyramid | Level 1 |
| Relegation to | Soviet First League |
| Domestic cup(s) | USSR Cup USSR Super Cup (unofficial) |
| League cup(s) | USSR Federation Cup (1940–1990) |
| International cup(s) | |
| Last champions | CSKA Moscow (1991) |
| Most championships | Dynamo Kyiv (13) |
| Most appearances | Oleg Blokhin (432) |
| Top goalscorer | Oleg Blokhin (211) |
The professional top level of football competition among clubs was established in 1936 on proposition of Nikolai Starostin and was approved by the All-Union Council of Physical Culture. Originally it was named Group A. After World War II it became known as the First Group. In 1950, after another reform of football in the Soviet Union, the First Group was replaced with Class A. By 1970, the Class A had expanded to three tiers with the top tier known as the Higher Group which in 1971 was renamed into the Higher League.
After the World War II, along with the competition among the first teams also there were conducted official competitions among reserve squads. It carried the name of "Tournament of Doubles" (Turnir doublyorov). The reserve squads' competitions were running parallel to the first teams' competitions normally scheduled a day prior with relegation rule completely depended on the league standing of their respective first team.
The Top League was one of the best football leagues in Europe, ranking second among the UEFA members in the 1988–89 season. Three of its representatives reached the finals of the European club tournaments on four occasions: FC Dynamo Kyiv, FC Dinamo Tbilisi, and FC Dynamo Moscow (all in the European Cup Winners' Cup). In the same way Russia politically succeeded the Soviet Union, UEFA considers the Russian Premier League to have succeeded the Soviet Top League.[2][3]
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Introduction and popularization
The league was established on the initiative of head of Spartak sport society, Nikolai Starostin.[4] Starostin proposed to create eight professional club teams in six Soviet cities and hold two championship tournaments per calendar year.[4] With minor corrections, the Soviet Council on Physical Culture accepted the Starostin's proposal creating a league of "demonstration teams of master" which were sponsored by sport societies and factories.[4] Nikolai Starostin de facto became a godfather of the Soviet championships.[5] Numerous mass events took place to promote the newly established competition, among which there was an introduction of football exhibition game as part of the Moscow Physical Culture Day parade, and the invitation to the Basque Country national football team which was on the side supported by Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War and others.
In 1936 the first secretary of Komsomol Kosarev came up with an idea of playing an actual football game at the Red Square as part of the Physical Culture Day parade.[6] Stalin never attended any sports events, but the Physical Culture Day was an exclusion to the rule.[6] The 1936 Physical Culture Day parade was directed by Russian theatre director Valentin Pluchek.[6] For the football game, a giant green felt carpet was sewn by Spartak athletes and laid down on the Red Square's cobblestones.[6] A night before the parade, the rug was stitched together in sections, rolled up and then stored in a vestibule of the GUM department store located at the square.[6] Following the 1936 Red Square game, it became a tradition before the World War II and part of the Physical Culture Day parade event.[6]
In the late 1930s Spartak was giving out thousands of tickets per game to members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[4] Among serious football fans was Lavrentiy Beria who proposed to have one team from each of union republics in the league.[4] In July 1937 a conflict erupted following a successful tour to the Soviet Union of the Basque national team during which the main governing body of sports in the country, the All-Union Council of Physical Culture, was accused by the party and Komsomol for failing the sports policy.[4] Spartak's leadership and Starostin in particular were accused of corruption and implementing "bourgeoisie methods" in Soviet sport.[4]
The most prominent clubs of the league were FC Dynamo Kyiv, FC Spartak Moscow, and FC Dynamo Moscow. The most popular clubs besides the above-mentioned were PFC CSKA Moscow, FC Ararat Yerevan, and FC Dinamo Tbilisi. Dinamo Tbilisi became famous for finishing third but never winning the title. They won their first title in 1964.
Development
Until the 1960s the main title contenders in the league were the Moscow clubs of Spartak and Dynamo whose dominance was disrupted for only a brief period after World War II by CSKA Moscow, nicknamed 'The team of lieutenants'. The first team that won 10 championships was Dynamo Moscow in 1963, followed by Spartak in 1979.
Eleven clubs spent over 30 seasons in the league with five of them from Moscow. Dynamo Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv were the only clubs that participated in all seasons of the league. Among other prominent Russian clubs were SKA Rostov/Donu (Army team), Zenit Leningrad (Zenith), and Krylia Sovietov Kuibyshev (Wings of the Soviets).
Over the years the league changed, however from the 1970s its competition structure solidified with 16 participants, except from 1979 through 1985 when the number of participants was extended to 18.
One uniquely Soviet innovation around this time was the "draw limit", whereby a team would receive zero points for any draws in excess of a fixed number, first 8, then 10. This rule had consequences for both the title race and relegation while it was in place. A 1973 experiment to resolve drawn games by penalty shoot-out lasted only one season.
Dynamo Kyiv's success as a Ukrainian club was supplemented in the 1980s with the appearance of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk led by its striker Oleh Protasov who set a new record for goals scored in a season. In 1984, Zenit Leningrad became Soviet champions for the first time.
With the unravelling of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, the structure of the league also became unstable as more and more clubs lost interest in continuing to participate in the league, prompting several rounds of reorganisation. The main effect of these was to boost the numbers of Ukrainian clubs to be on par with the Russians.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it has been suggested that the competition be re-established along the lines of the Commonwealth of Independent States Cup, but due to a lack of interest on various levels the venture has never been implemented.
Participants
The uneven population of the Soviet Union meant that the participants in a typical Top League season fell into three blocs:
- Russian clubs. Russian football was dominated by the "four-wheeled cart" of Moscow clubs: Spartak (Komsomol), Dynamo (police), CSKA (army) and Torpedo (auto workers). These four were often joined in the Top League by Lokomotiv (railroad workers), Zenit Leningrad (defense industry workers), or assorted clubs from smaller cities.
- Ukrainian clubs. Ukraine's capital Kyiv, by contrast, was the exclusive province of FC Dynamo Kyiv who became an unofficial feeder for the Soviet national team beginning in the 1960s, replacing Dynamo Moscow. Several clubs vied to be Ukraine's "second" team over the years including Shakhtar Donetsk, Metalist Kharkiv, Chernomorets Odesa, Zorya Voroshilovgrad (now Zorya Luhansk) and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, the last two managing to win three titles combined. Many Ukrainian clubs also were associated with the Soviet Dynamo sports society.
- Other republics clubs. Lavrentiy Beria's vision of one representative club per republic was partly realised from the 1950s onwards, as in every republic except for Russia and Ukraine, fan interest and government support became concentrated into a single club based in the republic's capital city, who became "the republic's team". Most of those clubs were originally created as Spartak or Dynamo, supported either by local party committee (Spartak) or local KGB office (Dynamo). Thus Lithuania became represented by Zalgiris Vilnius, Latvia by Daugava Riga, Estonia by Kalev Tallinn, Byelorussia by Dinamo Minsk, Moldavia by Nistru Kishinev, Armenia by Ararat Yerevan, Azerbaijan by Neftchi Baku, Georgia by Dinamo Tbilisi, Kazakhstan by Kairat Alma-Ata, Uzbekistan by Pakhtakor Tashkent and Tajikistan by Pamir Dushanbe. A typical Top League season would feature 4-6 of these eleven, and Yerevan, Minsk and Tbilisi all managed to win the title at least once. Only Georgia, with Torpedo Kutaisi and later Guria Lanchkhuti, was ever able to have a second representative survive in the Top League in addition to their capital city club. (Turkmenistan and Kirghizia were represented in the Soviet football pyramid by Köpetdag Aşgabat and Alga Frunze respectively, but neither reached the top level.)
Documentation
Documentation about the league is scarce. Among well-known researchers are Aksel Vartanyan for Sport Express, Andrei Moroz and Georgiy Ibragimov for KLISF Club, Alexandru G.Paloşanu, Eugene Berkovich, Mike Dryomin, Almantas Lauzadis, and Hans Schöggl for RSSSF Archives. Another extensive databases are composed at helmsoccer.narod.ru and FC Dynamo Moscow website.
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Since its creation, the Soviet Top League's name changed a quite few times:
- 1936 – 1941 Group A (Группа А)
Prior to World War II the championship was split into several groups usually of eight teams and named by the letters of the Cyrillic script.
- 1945 – 1949 The First Group of USSR (Первая группа СССР)
Upon the reestablishment of the league after the war for several years it was numbered sequentially with the top league being the First.
- 1950 – 1962 Class "A" of USSR (Класс "А" СССР)
Since 1950, the alphabetical classification of the Soviet league hierarchy has resumed. In 1960 through 1962 the league consisted of two groups with the better clubs qualified for the championship pool and less fortunate – the relegation pool.
- 1963 – 1969 The First Group "A" of USSR (Первая группа "А" СССР)
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The first time the Soviet League was represented in Europe in the 1965–66 European Cup Winners' Cup by Dynamo Kyiv. In its first year the club reached the quarterfinals, eliminating on its way Coleraine and Rosenborg and winning all four matches with those clubs. The Ukrainians also knocked out reigning champions Celtic in the first round in the 1967–68 European Cup. In the 1968–69 season the Soviet clubs withdrew from continental competitions after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. From 1974 (except for the 1982–83 season) to 1984 the league was among the best 10 national competitions in the UEFA rankings (based on continental competitions performance) reaching the 4th place in 1976 and 1977. From 1985 the Soviet Top League was among the best four in Europe, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In 1987 and 1988 the Soviet Top League was the second best league in Europe, however by the end of the Soviet Union the results of its representatives worsened as top players could now leave and play for foreign leagues in the West. The very last coefficient position that the Soviet League placed was No. 9 in 1992. The 1992/93 season all the results of the Soviet League were transferred to the Russian Premier League. Throughout its history the representatives of the league on four occasions made to the finals of the three primary European competitions being victorious in three. Once a Soviet club was able to win the UEFA Super Cup.
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Before establishment of professional competitions among clubs, in the Soviet Union existed another competition that was conducted among collective teams of various cities or republics.
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Goalscorer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1923 | Moscow | Southern Railways (Kharkiv) | Kolomna / Irkutsk | |
| 1924 | Kharkiv | Petrograd | Transcaucasian SFSR | |
| no competitions in 1925–27 | ||||
| 1928 | Moscow | Ukrainian SSR | Belarusian SSR | |
| no competitions in 1929–30 | ||||
| 1931 | Russian SFSR | Transcaucasian SFSR | Ukrainian SSR | |
| 1932 | Moscow | Leningrad | Kharkiv / Donbass | Vasily Smirnov (Moscow, 4 goals) |
| no competitions in 1933–34 | ||||
| 1935 | Moscow | Leningrad | Kharkiv | Mikhail Yakushin (Moscow, 6 goals) |
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- Bold text in the "Champion" column denotes that the club also won the Soviet Cup during the same season. The italicized text in the table indicates the other cup champions that made it the Soviet top-3.
Group A
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Goalscorer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 (spring) | Dynamo Moscow | Dynamo Kyiv | Spartak Moscow | Mikhail Semichastny (Dynamo Moscow, 6 goals) |
| 1936 (autumn) | Spartak Moscow | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Georgy Glazkov (Spartak Moscow, 7 goals) |
| 1937 | Dynamo Moscow (2) | Spartak Moscow | Dynamo Kyiv | Boris Paichadze (Dinamo Tbilisi, 8 goals) Leonid Rumyantsev (Spartak Moscow, 8 goals) Vasily Smirnov (Dynamo Moscow, 8 goals) |
| 1938 | Spartak Moscow (2) | CSKA Moscow | Metallurg Moscow | Makar Honcharenko (Dinamo Kyiv, 19 goals) |
| 1939 | Spartak Moscow (3) | Dinamo Tbilisi | CSKA Moscow | Grigory Fedotov (CSKA Moscow, 21 goals) |
| 1940 | Dynamo Moscow (3) | Dinamo Tbilisi | Spartak Moscow | Grigory Fedotov (CSKA Moscow, 21 goals) Sergei Solovyov (Dynamo Moscow, 21 goals) |
| 1941 | Cancelled on 24 June due to World War II (Dynamo Moscow had the best record at that time) | |||
| 1942–44 | Cancelled due to World War II | |||
- Performance by club
| Club | Winners | Runners-Up | 3rd Position | Years Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spartak Moscow | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1936a, 1938, 1939 |
| Dynamo Moscow | 3 | 1 | 1936s, 1937, 1940 | |
| Dinamo Tbilisi | 2 | 1 | ||
| CSKA Moscow | 1 | 1 | ||
| Dynamo Kyiv | 1 | 1 | ||
| Metallurg Moscow | 1 |
First group
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Goalscorer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Dynamo Moscow (4) | CSKA Moscow | Torpedo Moscow | Vsevolod Bobrov (CSKA Moscow, 24 goals) |
| 1946 | CSKA Moscow | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Aleksandr Ponomaryov (Torpedo Moscow, 18 goals) |
| 1947 | CSKA Moscow (2) | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Vsevolod Bobrov (CSKA Moscow, 14 goals) Valentin Nikolayev (CSKA Moscow, 14 goals) Sergei Solovyov (Dynamo Moscow, 14 goals) |
| 1948 | CSKA Moscow (3) | Dynamo Moscow | Spartak Moscow | Sergei Solovyov (Dynamo Moscow, 25 goals) |
| 1949 | Dynamo Moscow (5) | CSKA Moscow | Spartak Moscow | Nikita Simonyan (Spartak Moscow, 26 goals) |
- Performance by club
| Club | Winners | Runners-Up | 3rd Position | Years Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSKA Moscow | 3 | 2 | 1946, 1947, 1948 | |
| Dynamo Moscow | 2 | 3 | 1945, 1949 | |
| Dinamo Tbilisi | 2 | |||
| Spartak Moscow | 2 | |||
| Torpedo Moscow | 1 |
Class A
- Performance by club
| Club | Winners | Runners-Up | 3rd Position | Years Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spartak Moscow | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1962 |
| Dynamo Moscow | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959 |
| CSKA Moscow | 2 | 3 | 1950, 1951 | |
| Torpedo Moscow | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1960 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 1 | 2 | 1961 | |
| Dinamo Tbilisi | 2 | 3 | ||
| Lokomotiv Moscow | 1 | |||
| Shakhtar Stalino | 1 | |||
| Spartak Minsk | 1 |
Class A (1st Group)
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Goalscorer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Dynamo Moscow (10) | Spartak Moscow | Dinamo Minsk | Oleg Kopayev (SKA Rostov-on-Don, 27 goals) |
| 1964 | Dinamo Tbilisi | Torpedo Moscow | CSKA Moscow | Vladimir Fedotov (CSKA Moscow, 16 goals) |
| 1965 | Torpedo Moscow (2) | Dynamo Kyiv | CSKA Moscow | Oleg Kopayev (SKA Rostov-on-Don, 18 goals) |
| 1966 | Dynamo Kyiv (2) | SKA Rostov-on-Don | Neftyanik Baku | Ilya Datunashvili (Dinamo Tbilisi, 20 goals) |
| 1967 | Dynamo Kyiv (3) | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Mikhail Mustygin (Dinamo Minsk, 19 goals) |
| 1968 | Dynamo Kyiv (4) | Spartak Moscow | Torpedo Moscow | Georgi Gavasheli (Dinamo Tbilisi, 22 goals) Berador Abduraimov (Pakhtakor Tashkent, 22 goals) |
| 1969 | Spartak Moscow (9) | Dynamo Kyiv | Dinamo Tbilisi | Nikolai Osyanin (Spartak Moscow, 16 goals) Vladimir Proskurin (SKA Rostov-on-Don, 16 goals) Dzhemal Kherhadze (Torpedo Kutaisi, 16 goals) |
Class A (Top Group)
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Goalscorer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | CSKA Moscow (6) | Dynamo Moscow | Spartak Moscow | Givi Nodia (Dinamo Tbilisi, 17 goals) |
Top League
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Performance by club's first teams
| Club | Winners | Runners-up | Third places | Years won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dynamo Kyiv |
13 | 11 | 3 | 1961, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1990 |
 Spartak Moscow |
12 | 12 | 9 | 1936 (a), 1938, 1939, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1962, 1969, 1979, 1987, 1989 |
| Dynamo Moscow |
11 | 11 | 5 | 1936 (s), 1937, 1940, 1945, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1976 (s) |
| CSKA Moscow |
7 | 4 | 6 | 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1970, 1991 |
| Torpedo Moscow |
3 | 3 | 6 | 1960, 1965, 1976 (a) |
 Dinamo Tbilisi |
2 | 5 | 13 | 1964, 1978 |
| Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk |
2 | 2 | 2 | 1983, 1988 |
 Ararat Yerevan |
1 | 2 | – | 1973 |
 Dinamo Minsk |
1 | – | 3 | 1982 |
| Zenit Leningrad |
1 | – | 1 | 1984 |
| Zorya Voroshilovgrad |
1 | – | – | 1972 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk |
– | 2 | 2 | – |
| Lokomotiv Moscow |
– | 1 | – | – |
| SKA Rostov-on-Don |
– | 1 | – | – |
| Serp i Molot Moscow |
– | – | 1 | – |
 Neftchi Baku |
– | – | 1 | |
| Chornomorets Odesa |
– | – | 1 | – |
 Žalgiris Vilnius |
– | – | 1 | – |
| Total | 54 | 54 | 54 |
Performance by republic
| Republic | Winners | Runners-up | Third places | Appearances | Number of representing clubs |
Winning clubs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian SFSR |
34 | 32 | 28 | 416 | 31 | Spartak Moscow (12) Dynamo Moscow (11) CSKA Moscow (7) Torpedo Moscow (3) Zenit Leningrad (1) |
| Ukrainian SSR |
16 | 15 | 8 | 191 | 15 | Dynamo Kyiv (13) Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (2) Zorya Voroshilovgrad (1) |
| Georgian SSR |
2 | 5 | 13 | 68 | 5 | Dinamo Tbilisi (2) |
| Armenian SSR |
1 | 2 | – | 33 | 1 | Ararat Yerevan (1) |
| Byelorussian SSR |
1 | – | 3 | 39 | 1 | Dinamo Minsk (1) |
| Azerbaijan SSR |
– | – | 1 | 29 | 3 | |
| Lithuanian SSR |
– | – | 1 | 11 | 1 | |
 Kazakh SSR |
– | – | – | 24 | 1 | |
 Uzbek SSR |
– | – | – | 22 | 1 | |
 Moldavian SSR |
– | – | – | 7 | 1 | |
 Latvian SSR |
– | – | – | 7 | 1 | |
 Tajik SSR |
– | – | – | 3 | 1 | |
 Estonian SSR |
– | – | – | 2 | 1 | |
| Total | 54 | 54 | 54 |
The republics that were never represented at the top level were the Turkmen SSR and the Kyrgyz SSR. Also, in Soviet football Russian SFSR teams were technically represented by three different entities with Moscow and Leningrad as the Union federal cities teams considered separately from the rest of Russian teams.
All-time table
| Team | Republic | Seasons | First season | Last season | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals for | Goals against | Points1 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spartak Moscow | Russia | 53 | 1936 | 1991 | 1453 | 722 | 385 | 346 | 2483 | 1467 | 1821 | 12 | 12 | 9 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | Ukraine | 54 | 1936 | 1991 | 1483 | 681 | 456 | 346 | 2306 | 1566 | 1810 | 13 | 11 | 3 |
| Dinamo Moscow | Russia | 54 | 1936 | 1991 | 1485 | 707 | 404 | 374 | 2435 | 1457 | 1805 | 11 | 11 | 5 |
| Dinamo Tbilisi | Georgia | 51 | 1936 | 1989 | 1424 | 621 | 406 | 397 | 2176 | 1677 | 1642 | 2 | 5 | 13 |
| Torpedo Moscow | Russia | 51 | 1938 | 1991 | 1455 | 601 | 433 | 421 | 2059 | 1656 | 1613 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| CSKA Moscow[7] | Russia | 48 | 1936 | 1991 | 1326 | 585 | 363 | 378 | 2030 | 1451 | 1524 | 7 | 4 | 6 |
| Zenit Leningrad[8] | Russia | 49 | 1938 | 1989 | 1402 | 464 | 411 | 527 | 1725 | 1914 | 1328 | 1 | - | 1 |
| Shakhter Donetsk[9] | Ukraine | 44 | 1938 | 1991 | 1288 | 434 | 379 | 475 | 1522 | 1641 | 1241 | - | 2 | 2 |
| Dinamo Minsk (Spartak Minsk) | Belarus | 33 | 1945 | 1991 | 1053 | 342 | 319 | 392 | 1162 | 1297 | 989 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Ararat Yerevan[10] | Armenia | 33 | 1949 | 1991 | 1026 | 352 | 280 | 394 | 1150 | 1306 | 972 | 1 | 2 | - |
| Lokomotiv Moscow | Russia | 38 | 1936 | 1991 | 1001 | 303 | 289 | 409 | 1218 | 1431 | 888 | - | 1 | - |
| Neftchi Baku[11] | Azerbaijan | 27 | 1949 | 1988 | 884 | 253 | 270 | 361 | 907 | 1141 | 771 | - | - | 1 |
| Chernomorets Odesa | Ukraine | 24 | 1965 | 1991 | 738 | 244 | 217 | 277 | 777 | 884 | 699 | - | - | 1 |
| Kairat Almata | Kazakhstan | 24 | 1960 | 1988 | 780 | 226 | 234 | 320 | 742 | 983 | 678 | - | - | - |
| Pakhtakor Tashkent | Uzbekistan | 22 | 1960 | 1991 | 722 | 212 | 211 | 299 | 805 | 1035 | 629 | - | - | - |
| SKA Rostov-on-Don[12] | Russia | 21 | 1959 | 1985 | 680 | 218 | 194 | 268 | 843 | 911 | 620 | - | 1 | - |
| Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Ukraine | 19 | 1972 | 1991 | 554 | 227 | 154 | 173 | 729 | 634 | 604 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Krylya Sovetov Kuybyshev[13] | Russia | 26 | 1946 | 1979 | 715 | 185 | 209 | 321 | 675 | 996 | 579 | - | - | - |
| Metallist Kharkiv[14] | Ukraine | 14 | 1960 | 1991 | 438 | 133 | 124 | 181 | 413 | 530 | 390 | - | - | - |
| Zorya Voroshilovgrad | Ukraine | 14 | 1967 | 1979 | 412 | 125 | 135 | 152 | 416 | 469 | 377 | 1 | - | - |
| Dynamo Leningrad | Russia | 17 | 1936 | 1963 | 397 | 135 | 102 | 160 | 589 | 649 | 372 | - | - | - |
| Torpedo Kutaisi | Georgia | 13 | 1962 | 1986 | 439 | 104 | 129 | 206 | 395 | 655 | 335 | - | - | - |
| Žalgiris Vilnius[15] | Lithuania | 11 | 1953 | 1989 | 330 | 107 | 93 | 130 | 349 | 463 | 305 | - | - | 1 |
| Rotor Volgograd[16] | Russia | 11 | 1938 | 1990 | 293 | 91 | 66 | 136 | 352 | 488 | 248 | - | - | - |
| Nistru Chişinău[17] | Moldova | 11 | 1956 | 1983 | 312 | 69 | 84 | 159 | 312 | 534 | 222 | - | - | - |
| Karpaty Lviv | Ukraine | 9 | 1971 | 1980 | 244 | 68 | 85 | 91 | 250 | 301 | 218 | - | - | - |
| VVS Moscow | Russia | 6 | 1947 | 1952 | 161 | 58 | 32 | 71 | 235 | 270 | 148 | - | - | - |
| Daugava Riga | Latvia | 7 | 1949 | 1962 | 203 | 51 | 48 | 104 | 198 | 311 | 150 | - | - | - |
| Krylya Sovetov Moscow | Russia | 6 | 1938 | 1948 | 143 | 32 | 39 | 72 | 145 | 259 | 103 | - | - | - |
| Metallurg Moscow | Russia | 4 | 1937 | 1940 | 91 | 40 | 17 | 34 | 173 | 170 | 97 | - | - | 1 |
| Lokomotiv Kharkiv | Ukraine | 4 | 1949 | 1954 | 34 | 23 | 57 | 47 | 112 | 176 | 91 | - | - | - |
| Kuban Krasnodar | Russia | 3 | 1980 | 1982 | 102 | 29 | 26 | 47 | 111 | 145 | 84 | - | - | - |
| Admiralteyets Leningrad | Russia | 3 | 1958 | 1961 | 84 | 26 | 17 | 41 | 122 | 149 | 69 | - | - | - |
| Pamir Dushanbe | Tajikistan | 3 | 1989 | 1991 | 84 | 21 | 27 | 36 | 74 | 104 | 69 | - | - | - |
| Elektrik Leningrad[18] | Russia | 5 | 1936 | 1939 | 80 | 22 | 18 | 40 | 112 | 163 | 62 | - | - | - |
| Fakel Voronezh[19] | Russia | 2 | 1961 | 1985 | 66 | 20 | 17 | 29 | 63 | 83 | 57 | - | - | - |
| Trudovye Rezervy Leningrad | Russia | 3 | 1954 | 1956 | 68 | 16 | 23 | 29 | 82 | 113 | 55 | - | - | - |
| Volga Gorky[20] | Russia | 3 | 1951 | 1964 | 85 | 14 | 27 | 44 | 58 | 143 | 55 | - | - | - |
| Spartak Tbilisi | Georgia | 2 | 1950 | 1951 | 64 | 21 | 11 | 32 | 82 | 109 | 53 | - | - | - |
| Spartak Vladikavkaz | Russia | 2 | 1970 | 1991 | 62 | 16 | 16 | 30 | 64 | 89 | 48 | - | - | - |
| Dinamo Odesa | Ukraine | 2 | 1938 | 1939 | 51 | 16 | 13 | 22 | 64 | 102 | 45 | - | - | - |
| SKA Odesa | Ukraine | 2 | 1965 | 1966 | 68 | 4 | 19 | 45 | 38 | 121 | 27 | - | - | - |
| Metallurg Zaporizhya | Ukraine | 1 | 1991 | 1991 | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 27 | 38 | 25 | - | - | - |
| VMS Moscow | Russia | 1 | 1951 | 1951 | 28 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 30 | 50 | 23 | - | - | - |
| Tavriya Simferopol | Ukraine | 1 | 1981 | 1981 | 34 | 8 | 7 | 19 | 27 | 54 | 23 | - | - | - |
| Selmash Kharkiv | Ukraine | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 34 | 45 | 22 | - | - | - |
| Uralmash Sverdlovsk | Russia | 1 | 1969 | 1969 | 34 | 7 | 8 | 19 | 19 | 39 | 22 | - | - | - |
| Stalinets Moscow | Russia | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 36 | 44 | 21 | - | - | - |
| Lokomotyv Kyiv | Ukraine | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 43 | 64 | 21 | - | - | - |
| Shinnik Yaroslavl | Russia | 1 | 1964 | 1964 | 32 | 6 | 9 | 17 | 20 | 48 | 21 | - | - | - |
| Dynamo Rostov-on-Don | Russia | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 12 | 39 | 43 | 20 | - | - | - |
| Temp Baku | Azerbaijan | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 33 | 40 | 20 | - | - | - |
| Spartak Leningrad | Russia | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 30 | 39 | 20 | - | - | - |
| Kalev Tallinn | Estonia | 2 | 1960 | 1961 | 58 | 3 | 14 | 41 | 46 | 146 | 20 | - | - | - |
| Dynamo Kirovabad | Azerbaijan | 1 | 1968 | 1968 | 38 | 5 | 9 | 24 | 25 | 59 | 19 | - | - | - |
| Guria Lanchkhuti | Georgia | 1 | 1987 | 1987 | 30 | 5 | 8 | 17 | 18 | 38 | 18 | - | - | - |
| Spartak Kharkiv | Ukraine | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 43 | 63 | 17 | - | - | - |
| Zenit (Bolshevik) Leningrad | Russia | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 7 | 3 | 15 | 35 | 57 | 17 | - | - | - |
| ODO Sverdlovsk | Russia | 1 | 1956 | 1956 | 22 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 31 | 45 | 16 | - | - | - |
| Pishchevik Moscow | Russia | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 5 | 6 | 14 | 25 | 53 | 16 | - | - | - |
| Lokomotivi Tbilisi | Georgia | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 44 | 62 | 15 | - | - | - |
| Kalinin city team | Russia | 1 | 1952 | 1952 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 19 | 19 | 14 | - | - | - |
| Burevestnik Moscow | Russia | 1 | 1938 | 1938 | 25 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 28 | 87 | 12 | - | - | - |
1Two points for a win. In 1973, a point for a draw was awarded only to a team that won the subsequent penalty shootout. In 1978–1988, the number of draws for which points were awarded was limited.
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| Place | Name | Medals | Champion clubs | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gold | silver | bronze | |||
| 1 | Valeriy Lobanovsky | 7 | 4 | 2 | Dynamo Kyiv |
| 2 | Mikhail Yakushin | 6 | 6 | 1 | Dynamo Moscow |
| 3 | Boris Arkadiev | 6 | 2 | 2 | CSKA Moscow (5), Dynamo Moscow (1) |
| 4 | Viktor Maslov | 4 | 4 | - | Dynamo Kyiv (3), Torpedo Moscow (1) |
| 5 | Nikita Simonyan | 3 | 2 | 2 | Spartak Moscow (2), Ararat Yerevan (1) |
| 6 | Konstantin Beskov | 2 | 7 | 2 | Spartak Moscow |
| 7 | Aleksandr Sevidov | 2 | 2 | 2 | Dynamo Kyiv (1), Dynamo Moscow (1) |
| 8-9 | Nikolay Gulyayev | 2 | 2 | 1 | Spartak Moscow |
| Konstantin Kvashnin | 2 | 2 | 1 | Spartak Moscow (1), Dynamo Moscow (1) | |
| 10-11 | Vasily Sokolov | 2 | 1 | - | Spartak Moscow |
| Pavel Sadyrin | 2 | 1 | - | Zenit Leningrad (1), CSKA Moscow (1) | |
Notes:
- Clubs are shown those with which the listed coaches made the top-3, i.e. Beskov won two Top league titles and all with Spartak, but he also managed Dynamo with which he was a league runner-up.
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Starting since 1958 beside medals of the regular Soviet championship, participants were awarded number of prizes (~ 18 regular prizes) that were established by various sports and public organizations, editorial offices of newspapers and magazines.
a prize that had different name and created by someone else
a prize that was superseded by another
brief-lasting awards, less than 5 seasons
| Prize | Creator | Years |
|---|---|---|
| The best footballer of the Year | "Futbol" weekly | 1964—1991 |
| The best goalie of the Year | "Ogonyok" magazine | 1960—1991 |
| The best topscorer | "Trud" newspaper | 1958—1991 |
| The Knight of the Attack | "Sovetskiy voin" magazine | 1984—1991 |
| Loyalty to the club | "Prapor kommunizma" Kyiv newspaper | 1986—1989 |
| The best debutant of the season | "Smena" magazine | 1964—1975 |
| The best newcomer | "Sportivnye igry" magazine | 1986—1991 |
| To the attack setter | "Stroitelnaya gazeta" | 1988—1989 |
| With both squads | Football Federation (Section) of the USSR | 1958—1991 |
| Commemorative Prize of Grigoriy Fedotov | CSKA | 1958—1991 |
| For the fair play | "Sovetskiy sport" newspaper | 1958—1969 |
| Fair Play | "Chelovek i zakon" magazine | 1974—1991 |
| The big score | "Futbol" weekly | 1961—1991 |
| For the will to victory | "Sovetskaya Rossiya" newspaper | 1962—1991 |
| For the best difference in goals | "Start" Ukrainian magazine | 1966—1991 |
| The challenging guest | "Komsomolskoye znamya" Kyiv newspaper | 1966—1991 |
| The trouble for the elites[a] | "Sportivnaya Moskva" weekly | 1976—1991 |
| Honor to the flag | Alma-Ata newspaper "Leninskaya smena" | 1969—1978 |
| Cup of the progress | Kyiv "Rabochaya gazeta" | 1971—1991 |
| Together with a team | Presidium of the Football Federation of sport societies trade unions | 1978—1990 |
| The First height | Newspaper "Sotsialisticheskaya industriya" | 1983—1991 |
| For nobility and courage | Leningrad magazine "Avrora" | 1987—1989 |
| For the most beautiful goal of the season | Newspaper "Moskovskiy komsomolets" television program "Futbolnoye obozreniye" | 1964—1991 |
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