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.
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1912 | Saint Petersburg | Moscow | Kharkov / Kiev | ||||||||
| 1913 | Odessa | Saint Petersburg | Kharkov / Moscow | ||||||||
| 1914 | cancelled due to World War I |
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | Moscow | MKS Tver | Samara / Mars Yaroslavl | ||||||||
| 1921 | no championship | ||||||||||
| 1922 | Moscow | Kharkov | Perm / Kazan | ||||||||
| 1923 | no championship | ||||||||||
| 1924 | Petrograd | 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 |
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]
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1923 | Moscow | Southern Railways (Kharkov) | |||||||||
| 1924 | Kharkov | Petrograd | 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 | |||||||
| 1933 | no championship | ||||||||||
| 1934 | no championship | ||||||||||
| 1935 | Moscow | Leningrad | Kharkov | Mikhail Yakushev | 6 | ||||||
Republican level competitions among teams from the Russian SFSR. Until 1960 it included teams that were considered amateurs, after 1960 the competition was conducted as part of the Soviet Second League.
Source: Footballfacts.ru
See main article: Soviet Top League.
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | 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 | ||||||||||
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | 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 |
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | 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 |
See main article: Russian Premier League.
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Spartak Moscow (13) | Spartak Vladikavkaz | Dynamo Moscow | Vali Gasimov (Dynamo Moscow, 1st–8th place) 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 | Spartak-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 | ||||||
| width=9% | Year | width=19% | Champions (number of titles) | width=18% | Runners-up | width=18% | Third place | width=27% | Leading goalscorer | width=1% | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Spartak Moscow (18) | CSKA Moscow | Lokomotiv Moscow | Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd) | 22 | ||||||
| 1999 | Spartak Moscow (19) | Lokomotiv Moscow | CSKA Moscow | 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 | ||||||
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 thirteen. Dynamo Kiev also have thirteen titles, although the team no longer competes in the Russian football system, since it is now part of Ukraine. Fourth place is taken by Dinamo Moscow, who were the dominant team in Soviet Russia during the 1930s and 1950s. Dinamo Moscow has won eleven 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 seven 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,, and . These teams are no longer eligible for the championship as they play in their own leagues.
Table shows best-finish achievements in major European competitions starting from 1965-66 season. For non-Russian teams it is provided the results for Soviet period only.
European Cup / UEFA Champions League first and foremost.