Soviet Top League

The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (Russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу: Высшая лига, romanized: Vyschaya Liga), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Unionfootball championship from 1936 until 1991.

Over the years, the league's name has changed several times. Created in 1936, the tier was originally known as "Gruppa A" and was one of four tiers that comprised the All-Union football championship. Like everything in the Soviet Union, it was a state-run competition, governed by the All-Union Committee of Physical Culture (an institution of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union). The winner of the competition was honored with the title "USSR Champion" and awarded the All-Union Committee banner. In May of 1959, the Football Federation of the Soviet Union was created, which became the main governing body of football in the Soviet Union.

From its inception to its eclipse, the top tier operated in conjunction with the second tier for most of the time, allowing for participants to exchange between tiers through promotion and relegation. In 1963, a third tier was introduced. Starting from 1971, the full official name was the USSR Championship in football: Higher League. An attempt to create an independent league as an autonomously governed business entity or organization during the "perestroika" period was denied by the Federation due to the political culture in the Soviet Union.

Although the competition is considered professional, there were no professional (or commercial) sports in the Communist state due to its political stance on that issue. The teams that played in the league were composed of players who, officially, in the fiscal books, were employed and paid by the state enterprises or agencies (such as SKA or Dynamo) that the teams represented. Also, players from the state agencies' teams, SKA or Dynamo, held a rank, such as captain, lieutenant, major, etc. Also, the naming of teams was strictly controlled and had to be approved by the central government. Only after the death of Stalin were teams allowed to have names associated with their geographic location, due to the Soviet political stance on the national issue. Also, officially, teams represented so-called "voluntary" sports societies. (Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union).

After the World War II, along with the competition among the first teams, there were also conducted official competitions among reserve squads. It carried the name of "Tournament of the Doubles" (Turnir doublyorov). The reserve squads' competitions were running parallel to the first teams' competitions, normally scheduled a day prior, with relegation rules completely dependent 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.