1974 Soviet Top League

The 1974 Soviet Top League was the 36th season of the Soviet top tier football competitions. It also was the 4th season since the establishing of Vysshaya Liga (Soviet Top League) in place of the Soviet Class A competition.

Vysshaya Liga

Season	1974
Dates	12 April – 21 November 1974
Champions	Dynamo Kyiv 6th top-tier title
Relegated	Kairat Alma-Ata Nistru Kishinev
European Cup	Dynamo Kyiv
Cup Winners' Cup	Ararat Yerevan
UEFA Cup	Spartak Moscow Chernomorets Odessa
Top goalscorer	Oleg Blokhin (20)
← 1973 1975 →

The league's title was contested by 16 teams, and Dynamo Kyiv won the championship which was their sixth title. The last season's champions Ararat placed fifth trailing 8 points. The newly promoted Chernomorets placed third qualifying for the continental competitions for the first time.

Teams

Pre-season promotion

Teams promoted from the 1973 Soviet First League:

• Chernomorets Odessa – the champions (returning after three seasons absence)
• Nistru Kishinev – the runners-up (returning after 10 seasons absence)

Pre-season relegation

Teams relegated to the 1974 Soviet First League:

• Dinamo Minsk – the 15th place (ending their 14 seasons stay in the top-flight)
• SKA Rostov-na-Donu – the 16th place (ending their 15 seasons stay in the top-flight)

Managers

Club	Head coach
Ararat Yerevan	Nikita Simonyan
Dynamo Kyiv	Valeriy Lobanovskyi
Dynamo Moscow	Gavriil Kachalin
Spartak Moscow	Nikolay Gulyayev
Dinamo Tbilisi	Givi Chokheli (until August) Mikhail Yakushin (from August)
Shakhter Donetsk	Yuriy Zakharov (until August) Vladimir Salkov (from August)
Zaria Voroshilovgrad	Vsevolod Blinkov (until July) Yevhen Pestov (from July)
Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk	Viktor Kanevsky
Kairat Alma-Ata	Artem Falyan
CSKA Moscow	Vladimir Agapov
Zenit Leningrad	German Zonin
Pakhtakor Tashkent	Vyacheslav Solovyov
Torpedo Moscow	Valentin Ivanov
Karpaty Lvov	Valentin Babukin (until September) Ernest Yust (from September)
Chernomorets Odessa	Akhmed Aleskerov
Nistru Kishenev	Viktor Korolkov

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dynamo Kyiv (C)	30	14	12	4	49	24	+25	40	Qualification for European Cup first round
2	Spartak Moscow	30	15	9	6	41	23	+18	39	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
3	Chornomorets Odessa	30	12	11	7	35	31	+4	35
4	Torpedo Moscow	30	13	7	10	35	28	+7	33
5	Ararat Yerevan	30	11	10	9	37	28	+9	32	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round
6	Dynamo Moscow	30	10	11	9	42	33	+9	31
7	Zenit Leningrad	30	8	15	7	36	41	−5	31
8	Pakhtakor Tashkent	30	10	10	10	45	44	+1	30
9	Dinamo Tbilisi	30	8	14	8	29	34	−5	30
10	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	30	9	11	10	31	39	−8	29
11	Karpaty Lviv	30	8	12	10	33	33	0	28
12	Shakhtar Donetsk	30	8	12	10	31	35	−4	28
13	CSKA Moscow	30	7	12	11	28	33	−5	26
14	Zarya Voroshilovgrad	30	8	10	12	32	41	−9	26
15	Kairat Alma-Ata (R)	30	8	10	12	37	47	−10	26	Relegation to First League
16	Nistru Kishinev (R)	30	4	8	18	32	59	−27	16

Source:
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	ARA	CHO	CSK	DNI	DYK	DYN	DTB	KAI	KAR	NIS	PAK	SHA	SPA	TOR	ZAR	ZEN
Ararat Yerevan		2–0	3–2	1–1	0–0	2–2	2–2	1–0	1–1	2–1	3–1	2–0	2–0	0–1	4–2	4–0
Chornomorets Odessa	2–1		1–0	2–2	3–3	0–0	2–2	3–3	2–0	5–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–0
CSKA Moscow	0–1	1–0		2–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–0	1–3	0–1
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	1–0	1–1	1–0		0–0	3–1	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–4	0–0	0–2	1–1
Dynamo Kyiv	2–0	2–0	2–0	3–1		2–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	4–2	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	5–0	5–0
Dynamo Moscow	2–3	1–1	1–2	3–1	1–2		0–0	1–2	2–1	1–0	4–0	3–0	1–1	0–1	5–0	3–1
Dinamo Tbilisi	1–0	2–0	1–3	0–0	0–0	0–0		1–1	0–0	4–2	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	3–2	1–1
Kairat Alma-Ata	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	5–0		0–2	2–0	4–3	0–0	0–4	1–1	2–1	2–2
Karpaty Lviv	1–1	1–1	1–1	4–3	0–0	4–1	0–0	2–2		3–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	3–2
Nistru Kishinev	2–2	1–2	3–3	1–2	1–0	0–1	1–3	4–2	1–0		0–1	2–2	1–0	0–3	0–0	1–1
Pakhtakor Tashkent	0–0	0–1	4–1	5–0	3–3	0–0	2–1	4–1	1–0	3–0		3–1	0–3	2–2	4–2	1–1
Shakhtar Donetsk	1–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	5–2	2–1	2–1	2–0		0–0	0–2	0–0	2–2
Spartak Moscow	1–0	3–0	2–1	0–0	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	4–1	1–3		0–0	2–2	1–1
Torpedo Moscow	1–0	0–0	0–2	3–0	1–1	0–2	4–1	3–1	0–1	4–3	0–1	2–1	3–1		2–1	2–1
Zarya Voroshilovgrad	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–1	3–0		0–1
Zenit Leningrad	0–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	3–3	1–2	3–2	1–0	1–1	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–0

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

20 goals

• Oleg Blokhin (Dynamo Kyiv)

16 goals

• Anatoli Ionkin (Kairat)
• Vadim Pavlenko (Dynamo Moscow)

13 goals

• Vladimir Makarov (Chornomorets Odessa)

12 goals

• Vadim Nikonov (Torpedo Moscow)

11 goals

• Mikhail An (Pakhtakor)
• Anatoly Baidachny (Dynamo Moscow)
• Vladimir Onischenko (Dynamo Kyiv)
• Vitali Starukhin (Shakhtar)

10 goals

• Vladimir Danilyuk (Karpaty)
• Aleksandr Piskaryov (Spartak Moscow)

References

• Soviet Union - List of final tables (RSSSF)