| Competition: | Soviet Top League |
| Season: | 1991 |
| Dates: | 10 March – 2 November 1991 |
| Winners: | CSKA Moscow (7th title) |
| Relegated: | none |
| Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
| Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | CSKA Moscow (for Russia) |
| Continentalcup2: | Cup Winners' Cup |
| Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Spartak Moscow (for Russia) |
| Continentalcup3: | UEFA Cup |
| Continentalcup3 Qualifiers: | Dynamo Moscow Torpedo Moscow (for Russia) |
| League Topscorer: | (18) Igor Kolyvanov (Dynamo Moscow) |
| Biggest Home Win: | Spartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th) |
| Biggest Away Win: | Dynamo M. – Torpedo 1–4 (18th) Metalurh – Chornomorets 1–4 (16th) |
| Highest Scoring: | Spartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th) Dynamo M. – Dnipro 6–2 (28th) |
| Prevseason: | 1990 |
| Nextseason: | 1992 |
The 1991 Soviet Top League season (Russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу 1991 (высшая лига)) was 22nd in the Top League and the 54th since the establishment of nationwide club competition, also the last one. Dynamo Kyiv were the defending 13-times champions and came fifth this season. A total of sixteen teams participated in the league, twelve of them have contested in the 1990 season while the remaining four were promoted from the Soviet First League due to withdrawals. The representatives of the Baltic states as well as Georgia chose not to take part in the competition.
The season began on 10 March and lasted until 2 November 1991. The season was won by PFC CSKA Moscow that returned to the top league prior to the last season while winning the Soviet Cup competition as well. The season's culmination occurred in its final rounds, when the army team managed to overtake Spartak, while with four rounds left in the season, Spartak was leading the table a point ahead of CSKA and a recent thrashing of Dynamo Moscow 7 to 1.
Due to participants withdrawal in the preceding season four new teams entered the league. Upon the conclusion of the season no clubs were relegated and 12 out of its 16 participants formed a base for either the Russian or the Ukrainian competitions, while other four participants joined their own newly formed national leagues. If the Soviet Union had remained intact, Metalist Kharkiv and Lokomotiv Moscow would have been relegated to the Soviet First League for the next season, while FC Rotor Volgograd and FC Tiligul Tiraspol would have been promoted to the Top League for 1992.
The top six clubs of the league later entered European competitions for their respective nations. The Ukrainian clubs chose to qualify through a separate national competition.
The league was expanded to 16 after the last season, during which number of clubs left the Soviet competitions (from Georgia and Baltic states). The last-placed FC Rotor Volgograd of the 1990 Soviet Top League lost promotion/relegation playoff to Lokomotiv Moscow and was relegated to the 1991 Soviet First League. Rotor Volgograd returned to the Soviet First League after two seasons absence, while at the same time Lokomotiv Moscow returned to the Soviet Top League after only a one-season absence.
Beside the fourth placed Lokomotiv three more teams were promoted and included the champion (FC Spartak Vladikavkaz) and the runners-up of the 1990 Soviet First League (FC Pakhtakor Tashkent and FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia).
| Club | Head coach | |
|---|---|---|
| Pavel Sadyrin | ||
| Oleg Romantsev | ||
| Valentin Ivanov (until September) Yevgeni Skomorokhov (from September) | ||
| Viktor Prokopenko | ||
| Anatoliy Puzach | ||
| Semen Altman (until March) Valery Gazzaev (from April) | ||
| Eduard Malofeyev (until April) Mikhail Vergeyenko (from April) | ||
| Armen Sarkisyan | ||
| Yevhen Kucherevskyi | ||
| Sharif Nazarov | ||
| Valery Gazzaev (until March) Nikolai Khudiyev (April to July) Ruslan Khadartsev (from July) | ||
| Valeriy Yaremchenko | ||
| Ihor Nadein | ||
| Fyodor Novikov (until June) Ahrol Inoyatov (from July to October) Alexander Tarkhanov (from November) | ||
| Leonid Tkachenko | ||
| Valeri Filatov |
https://teams.by/champ/player_clean/1218/
| Prize | Founder | Laureate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football weekly | Igor Kolyvanov | ||
| Goalkeeper of the Year | Ogoniok magazine | Valeri Sarychev | |
| Top Scorer | Igor Kolyvanov | ||
| Knight of Attack | Soviet Warrior magazine | Igor Kolyvanov | |
| Top Rookie | Sport Games magazine | Valeriy Velichko | |
| With Two Squads | Spartak Moscow | ||
| Grigory Fedotov Memorial | Spartak Moscow | ||
| Fair Play | Person and Law magazine | Chornomorets Odesa | |
| Large Score | Football weekly | Chornomorets Odesa | |
| Will to Win | Pamir Dushanbe | ||
| Best Difference of Aggregates | Start magazine | Spartak Moscow | |
| Aggressive Visitor | newspaper Komsomol's Banner | CSKA Moscow | |
| Danger of the Best | Sport Moscow weekly | Chornomorets Odesa | |
| Progress Cup | newspaper Labor Newspaper | Chornomrets Odesa | |
| First Height | newspaper Socialist Industry | CSKA Moscow |
(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)
