List of Soviet and Russian football champions
Football had been played in Russia since the Russian Empire days in the early 1900s, but it was not until 1936, 19 years after the Russian Revolution, that the Soviet Union established a national championship of clubs. Before then local leagues in Moscow and Saint Petersburg/Leningrad were the only prominent league competitions in the country, with some national championships held intermittently from 1912 to 1933, made up of city selections.
Teams in bold indicates doubles won with the Soviet Cup before 1992 and with the Russian Cup thereafter. Teams in italics include Cup winners between the 2nd and 3rd league places.
Football championship of Russian Empire
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1912 | Saint Petersburg | Moscow | Kharkov / Kiev | ||
| 1913 | Odessa | Saint Petersburg | Kharkov / Moscow | ||
| 1914 | cancelled due to World War I | ||||
Football championship of Russian SFSR among city teams
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | Moscow | MKS Tver | Samara / Mars Yaroslavl | ||
| 1921 | no championship | ||||
| 1922 | Moscow | Kharkov | Perm / Kazan | ||
| 1923 | no championship | ||||
| 1924 | Leningrad | Moscow | Viatka / Kazan | ||
| no championship in 1925-26 | |||||
| 1927 | Moscow | Western Oblast | North Caucasus Krai | ||
| 1928 | Moscow | Leningrad | Autonomous republics | ||
| no championship in 1929-30 | |||||
| 1931 | Moscow | Leningrad | North Caucasus Krai / Nizhniy Novgorod Krai | ||
| 1932 | Leningrad | Moscow | Samara / Sverdlovsk | ||
| 1933 | no championship | ||||
| 1934 | Voronezh | Ivanovo | Sverdlovsk | ||
| 1935 | no championship | ||||
Early football championship of the USSR among city teams
Note: according to Dynamo sports society, the first Soviet football championship took place in 1924,[1] while other sources (megabook.ru) indicate that the first championship took place earlier in 1923. In Moscow it was decided to consider the football tournament of the 1924 All-Union festival of physical culture as the first national championship.[2]
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1923 | Moscow | Southern Railways (Kharkiv) | |||
| 1924 | Kharkov | Leningrad | Yakov Alferov | 2 | |
| 1925 | no championship | ||||
| 1926 | no championship | ||||
| 1927 | no championship | ||||
| 1928 | Moscow | Ukrainian SSR | |||
| 1929 | no championship | ||||
| 1930 | no championship | ||||
| 1931 | Moscow | Russian SFSR | Transcaucasian SFSR | ||
| 1932 | Moscow | Leningrad | Vasily Smirnov | 4 | |
| 1929 | no championship | ||||
| 1930 | no championship | ||||
| 1935 | Moscow | Leningrad | Kharkov | Mikhail Yakushev | 6 |
Soviet League (1936–1991)
Soviet Group A
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 (spring) | Dynamo Moscow | Dynamo Kiev | Spartak Moscow | Mikhail Semichastny (Dynamo Moscow) | 6 |
| 1936 (autumn) | Spartak Moscow | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Georgy Glazkov (Spartak Moscow) | 7 |
| 1937 | Dynamo Moscow (2) | Spartak Moscow | Dynamo Kiev | Boris Paichadze (Dinamo Tbilisi) Leonid Rumyantsev (Spartak Moscow) Vasily Smirnov (Dynamo Moscow) |
8 |
| 1938 | Spartak Moscow (2) | CDKA Moscow | Metallurg Moscow | Makar Goncharenko (Dinamo Kiev) | 19 |
| 1939 | Spartak Moscow (3) | Dinamo Tbilisi | CDKA Moscow | Grigory Fedotov (CDKA Moscow) | 21 |
| 1940 | Dynamo Moscow (3) | Dinamo Tbilisi | Spartak Moscow | Grigory Fedotov (CDKA Moscow) Sergei Solovyov (Dynamo Moscow) |
21 |
| 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 | ||||
Soviet First Group
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Dynamo Moscow (4) | CDKA Moscow | Torpedo Moscow | Vsevolod Bobrov (CDKA Moscow) | 24 |
| 1946 | CDKA Moscow | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Aleksandr Ponomaryov (Torpedo Moscow) | 18 |
| 1947 | CDKA Moscow (2) | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Vsevolod Bobrov (CDKA Moscow) Valentin Nikolayev (CDKA Moscow) Sergei Solovyov (Dynamo Moscow) |
14 |
| 1948 | CDKA Moscow (3) | Dynamo Moscow | Spartak Moscow | Sergei Solovyov (Dynamo Moscow) | 25 |
| 1949 | Dynamo Moscow (5) | CDKA Moscow | Spartak Moscow | Nikita Simonyan (Spartak Moscow) | 26 |
Soviet Class A
Soviet Class A, 1st Group
| Season | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Position | Top Scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Dynamo Moscow (10) | Spartak Moscow | Dinamo Minsk | Oleg Kopaev (SKA Rostov-on-Don) | 27 |
| 1964 | Dinamo Tbilisi | Torpedo Moscow | CSKA Moscow | Vladimir Fedotov (CSKA Moscow) | 16 |
| 1965 | Torpedo Moscow (2) | Dynamo Kiev | CSKA Moscow | Oleg Kopaev (SKA Rostov-on-Don) | 18 |
| 1966 | Dynamo Kiev (2) | SKA Rostov-on-Don | Neftchi Baku | Ilya Datunashvili (Dinamo Tbilisi) | 20 |
| 1967 | Dynamo Kiev (3) | Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Tbilisi | Mikhail Mustygin (Dinamo Minsk) | 19 |
| 1968 | Dynamo Kiev (4) | Torpedo Moscow | Spartak Moscow | Georgi Gavasheli (Dinamo Tbilisi) Berador Abduraimov (Pakhtakor Tashkent) |
22 |
| 1969 | Spartak Moscow (9) | Dynamo Kiev | Dinamo Tbilisi | Nikolai Osyanin (Spartak Moscow) Vladimir Proskurin (SKA Rostov-on-Don) Dzhemal Kherhadze (Torpedo Kutaisi) |
16 |
Soviet Supreme League (Soviet Top League)
Russian League (1992–present)
Russian Top League
| Season | Champion | Runner-up | 3rd position | Top Scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Spartak Moscow (13) | Alania Vladikavkaz | Dynamo Moscow |  Vali Gasimov (Dynamo Moscow, 1st–8th place).svg.png.webp){kind=small} Yuri Matveyev (Uralmash, 9th–20th place) |
16 20 |
| 1993 | Spartak Moscow (14) | Rotor Volgograd | Dynamo Moscow | Viktor Panchenko (KamAZ Naberezhnye Chelny) |
21 |
| 1994 | Spartak Moscow (15) | Dynamo Moscow | Lokomotiv Moscow |  Igor Simutenkov (Dynamo Moscow) |
21 |
| 1995 | Alania Vladikavkaz | Lokomotiv Moscow | Spartak Moscow | Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd) |
25 |
| 1996 | Spartak Moscow (16) | Alania Vladikavkaz | Rotor Volgograd | Aleksandr Maslov (Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don) |
23 |
| 1997 | Spartak Moscow (17) | Rotor Volgograd | Dynamo Moscow | Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd) |
22 |
Russian Top Division
| Season | Champion | Runner-up | 3rd position | Top scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Spartak Moscow (18) | CSKA Moscow | Lokomotiv Moscow | Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd) |
22 |
| 1999 | Spartak Moscow (19) | Lokomotiv Moscow | CSKA Moscow | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Georgi Demetradze (Alania Vladikavkaz) |
21 |
| 2000 | Spartak Moscow (20) | Lokomotiv Moscow | Torpedo Moscow | Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv Moscow) |
18 |
| 2001 | Spartak Moscow (21) | Lokomotiv Moscow | Zenit Saint Petersburg | Dmitri Vyazmikin (Torpedo Moscow) |
18 |
Russian Premier League
Performances by club
Spartak Moscow are the most successful club in the overall ranking, having won 22 national titles. They are followed by city rivals CSKA Moscow with 13. Third place is taken by Dinamo Kiev, who also have 13 titles, although the team no longer competes in the Russian football system, since it is part of Ukraine now. Fourth place is taken by Dinamo Moscow, who were the dominant team in Soviet Russia during the 1930s and 1950s. Dinamo Moscow has won 11 titles, although their last title came in 1976. Zenit Saint Petersburg is by far the most successful Russian team outside of Moscow. They have won 7 titles, mostly in the 2000s and 2010s.
All clubs are included with all national titles:
Note: Teams in bold are teams from Russia, flags indicate a club based outside Russia, namely Ukraine 
, Georgia 
, Armenia 
and Belarus 
. These teams are no longer eligible for the championship as they play in their own leagues.
Further reading
- Afinogenov, V., Isaev, A. "Futbol-1988. Second half". Krasnodar, 1988. page 96. («Футбол-1988. Второй круг» (авторы-составители В.Афиногенов, А.Исаев. Краснодар. 1988, 96 с.))
- Gaidyshev, Yu.I. "Futbol-1992". Krasnodar, 1992. page 104. («Футбол-1992» (автор-составитель Ю. И. Гайдышев и др., Краснодар. 1992, 104 с.))
References
- History (История). Kharkiv Oblast organization of the Physical Culture and Sports Society Dynamo Ukraine.
- Rodionov, S. The Kharkiv football: from A to Z (Харьковский футбол: от А до Я). Sport.ua. 30 June 2005
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