Soviet Top League

The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (Russian: Высшая лига^[1]) served as the top division of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991.

It was one of the best football leagues in Europe, ranking second among the UEFA members in 1988-1989 seasons. 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. According to UEFA the main successor of the league became the Russian Premier League.

Overview

General outlook

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. The first team that won 10 championships was Dynamo Moscow in 1963, followed by Spartak in 1979. Dinamo Tbilisi became famous for finishing third but never winning the title, the first title they won in 1964. Perceived as exclusively Russian by people from other countries, the league was truly multinational with other republics in the USSR being represented.

Eleven clubs spent over 30 seasons in the league with just under half (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). Ukraine was also often represented by Shakhtar Donetsk (Miners) and later by Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk who were strong in the 1980s.

After the league's reorganization number of Ukrainian-based clubs grew and in the last seasons before the breakup of the USSR, Ukraine was often equally represented with the Russian clubs. Among the Soviet sports societies most successful were Dynamo and Army clubs, both of which also were closely associated with state enforcing agencies.

Development

Over the years the league has changed, however since the 1970s its competition structure has solidified with 16 participants, except from 1979 through 1985 when the number of participants was extended to 18. Because of the dissolution of the Soviet Union the structure of the league has also become unstable as more and more clubs lost interest continuing participation in the league. Attempts to reorganize the league took place, however practically all of them were not successful.

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 1960s saw the emergence of a new Soviet football elite in Torpedo Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv. While Moscow's automakers did not manage to grow into perennial challengers, the team from the Ukrainian capital became an unofficial feeder for the Soviet national team, replacing Dynamo Moscow. 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. The Peter's men having a rich history in Russian football but for a long were unable to break the dominance of the Moscow-based clubs, or that of Dynamo Tbilisi and Kyiv.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a suggestion that the competition would be re-established along the lines of the Commonwealth of Independent States Cup, but due to lack of interest on various levels the venture was never implemented. There were various other similar initiatives which ultimately found no support and were discontinued.

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.

Names

Since its creation, the Soviet Top League's name changed a quite few times:

1936 – 1941 Group A (Группа А)

Prior to the 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)

European representation

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 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.

Champions and top goalscorers

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

Performance by club

First group

Performance by club

Class A

Performance by club

Class A (1st Group)

Class A (Top Group)

Top League

Overall statistics

Performance by club

Club	Winners	Runners-Up	3rd Position	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

Performance by republic

Republic	Winners	Runners-Up	3rd Position	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	14	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

Republics never represented at top-level were the Turkmen SSR and the Kyrgyz SSR

All-time table

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.

Best coaches

See also

National Leagues of the former Soviet republics

References

External links

• USSR (Soviet Union) – Final Tables, rsssf.com. Retrieved 9 June 2006.
• Russian Portal about Soviet Football, sovfootball.ru.
• USSR&Russian soccers tables
• An extensive database of game protocols and statistics (Russian)
• Media Biblioteca of the Soviets Football
• Media Biblioteca of the Soviets Football in VK

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