The Soviet Football Championship, Class B (, Soviet football championship (Class B)) was the second, third and for a season fourth highest division of

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, below the

Soviet Class A The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by area ...

and then the Soviet Class A Second Group.

Historical background

Creation

The league was formed in 1950 as the second tier of football competitions in the Soviet Union in place of the Second Group of the Soviet football championship ( 1949 Soviet First League). Before the start of the 1950 season, there was an idea to include representatives of all 15

union republics In the Soviet Union, a Union Republic () or unofficially a Republic of the USSR was a Federated state, constituent federated political entity with a List of forms of government, system of government called a Soviet republic (system of governm ...

.ЛЕТОПИСЬ Акселя ВАРТАНЯНА. 1950 год. Часть первая (ЧТОБЫ ВОЛКИ БЫЛИ СЫТЫ, А ОВЦЫ - ЦЕЛЫ)
www.sport-express.ru. 8 June 2009 On behalf of the Soviet Council of Ministers, the chairman of the Committee of Physical Culture and Sports

Arkadiy Apollonov Arkadiy () may refer to: *Arkadiy Abramovich (born 1993), heir to Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea F.C. Biography * Arkadiy Akopyan (born 1984), Russian professional footballer, currently playing for FC Dynamo Bryansk *Ark ...

presented to

Mikhail Suslov Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov (; 25 January 1982) was a Soviet people, Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union#Secretariat, Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Sovi ...

the season's draft which included 27 teams representing 15 union republics. "The team from the

Karelo-Finnish SSR The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR), also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 31 March 1940 until it was made part of the Russian SFSR on 16 July 1956 ...

due to lack of trained personnel was not included in participation of the Soviet Union championship", explained Arkadiy Apollonov. Suslov sent the presentation to Kalashnikov and Sushkov to learn more about the issue. Those two came up with an alternative draft which they presented

Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (8 January 1902 O.S. 26 December 1901">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 26 December 1901ref name=":6"> – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who br ...

rather than Suslov.

Further development

In 1960 Class B was split by republican (regional) principle and there existed Class B of the Russian SFSR, Class B of Ukraine, Class B of Union republics, Class B of Kazakhstan, Class B of Central Asia. With the expansion of Soviet Class A in 1963, the Soviet Class B was downgraded to the third tier and in 1970 even further to the fourth tier. Before 1971 it was abolished.

Winners

Second tier

Third tier

Fourth tier

Notes

References

{{Reflist 2 Defunct second-level football leagues in Europe Defunct third-level football leagues in Europe Defunct fourth-level football leagues in Europe Sports leagues established in 1950 Sports leagues disestablished in 1970 1950 establishments in the Soviet Union 1970 disestablishments in the Soviet Union