Soviet First League 1991 was the last season of the

Soviet First League The Soviet First League in football () was the second highest division of Soviet football,Evgeni Kazakov. The Soviet First Football League (Первая лига СССР по футболу)''. History of Soviet football championships. Volume 1 ...

. With the collapse of the

Soviet Union 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 ...

the football structure was reformed. All of its participants have entered the Top Divisions of the republics of their origin, except of ''Dinamo Sukhumi'' that because of the 1992-93 War in Abkhazia was dissolved. Due to the

1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to Coup d'état, forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President ...

, a process of

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

accelerated as well as a process of

decommunization Decommunization in former communist states is the process of purging former communist high officials and eliminating communist symbols. It is sometimes referred to as political cleansing. Although the term has been occasionally used during t ...

in former

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 ...

. Number of cities changed their names returning to their original names.

Teams

Promoted teams

* FC Uralmash Sverdlovsk – Winner of the

1990 Soviet Second League The Second League was restructured reducing number of zones from 9 to 3 due to withdrawals by clubs from Estonia, Georgia, Latvia (except Pardaugava Riga, a majority-Russian club) and Lithuania as they declared independence from the Soviet Union. ...

, Zone Center ''(returning after an absence of 10 seasons)'' * FC Bukovina Chernovtsy – Winner of the

, Zone West ''(debut)'' * FC Neftianik Fergona – Winner of the

, Zone East ''(debut)'' * FC Novbakhor Namangan – Runner-up of the

, Zone East ''(debut)'' * FC Textilshchik Kamyshin – Runner-up of the

, Zone Center ''(debut)'' *''

FC Daugava Riga FC Daugava Riga (FK Daugava Rīga) is a former Soviet and Latvian football club from Riga. It participated in the Soviet championships. Through the years, the club represented various Riga factories like the VEF, RVR and the Riga Electrical Ma ...

'' – Runner-up of the

, Zone West ''(debut)''

Relegated teams

Rotor Volgograd SC Rotor Volgograd () is a Russian professional football club from the large city of Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast (formerly Stalingrad). The club plays in the second-tier Russian First League, and are the largest and best supported Volgograd club. ...

– ''(Returning after 2 seasons)''

Renamed teams

*Prior to the start of the season ''Tiras Tiraspol'' was renamed to Tiligul Tiraspol. *Prior to the start of the season ''Nistru Kishenev'' was renamed to Zimbrul Kishinev.

Replaced or withdrawn teams

With

fall of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...

, the promoted

was dissolved and replaced with FC Pardaugava Riga that was based on the junior squad of the Latvia national U-21 football team and took part in the

1990 Baltic League 1990 Baltic League () was an international football competition organized in 1990 between three Baltic states with the ongoing dissolution of the Soviet Union. The league consisting of 18 clubs from the Lithuania SSR, Estonian SSR, the Latvian S ...

placing only 15th out 17 teams.

Locations

League standings

''Notes:'' * On 6 September 1991, the city of Leningrad was renamed into

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

* On 4 September 1991, the city of Sverdlovsk was renamed into

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

Number of teams by union republic

Top scorers

Managers

External links

1990 First League
at the

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

{{1991 in Soviet football Soviet First League seasons 2

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 ...

1991 in Abkhazia 1991 in Armenian football 1991 in Kazakhstani football 1991 in Latvian football 1991–92 in Moldovan football 1991 in Russian football leagues 1991 in Ukrainian association football leagues 1991 in Uzbekistani football 1 1