| Season: | 1990 |
| League Topscorer: | (37) Igor Shkvyrin (Pakhtakor Tashkent) |
| Nextseason: | 1991 |
1990 Soviet First League was part of the Soviet football competition in the second league division. With the ongoing fall of the Soviet Union some clubs left the Soviet competitions and the league was reduced.
Prior to the start of the season all Georgian clubs (with the exception of Dinamo Sukhumi, a majority-Russian club from Abkhazia) withdrew from Soviet competitions. This included two First League clubs, FC Torpedo Kutaisi and FC Dinamo Batumi. Because of that the league was reduced to 20 as compared to the previous season of 22 participants.
Notes:
(13th team of the Top League and 4th team of the First League)
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Lokomotiv Moscow won the promotion on 3–2 aggregate
| Player | Club | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Igor Shkvyrin | Pakhtakor Tashkent | 37 |
| 2 | Bakhva Tedeyev | Spartak Vladikavkaz | 23 |
| 3 | Vali Gasimov | Neftchi Baku | 22 |
| 4 | Sergei Volgin | Metalurh Zaporizhia | 19 |
| 5 | Vyacheslav Protsenko | Nistru Chisinau | 18 |
| 6 | Vladimir Sushiy | Dynamo Stavropol | 16 |
| 7 | Robert Kocharyan | Kotayk Abovian | 15 |
| 8 | Georgiy Chaligava | Dinamo Sukhumi | 12 |
| Viktor Leonenko | Geolog Tyumen | 12 |