| Season | 1988 |
|---|---|
| Champions | Pamir Dushanbe |
| Promoted | Pamir Dushanbe Rotor Volgograd |
| Relegated | Zorya Voroshylovhrad Zvezda Perm Kolos Nikopol |
| Top goalscorer | (22) Mukhsin Mukhamadiyev (Pamir Dushanbe) and Aleksandr Nikitin (Rotor Volgograd) |
← 1987 1989 → | |
The 1988 Soviet First League was the 49th season of the second tier of association football in the Soviet Union.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Pamir Dushanbe (C, P)
|
42 | 24 | 10 | 8 | 78 | 44 | +34 | 58 | Promotion to Top League |
| 2 |  Rotor Volgograd (P)
|
42 | 25 | 7 | 10 | 76 | 37 | +39 | 57 | |
| 3 | CSKA Moscow
|
42 | 23 | 10 | 9 | 69 | 35 | +34 | 56 | |
| 4 |  Guria Lanchkhuti
|
42 | 23 | 7 | 12 | 71 | 44 | +27 | 53 | |
| 5 |  Pakhtakor Tashkent
|
42 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 64 | 38 | +26 | 52 | |
| 6 | Dynamo Stavropol
|
42 | 18 | 11 | 13 | 59 | 46 | +13 | 47 | |
| 7 |  SKA Karpaty Lviv
|
42 | 18 | 8 | 16 | 51 | 39 | +12 | 44 | |
| 8 |  Daugava Riga
|
42 | 18 | 7 | 17 | 56 | 54 | +2 | 43 | |
| 9 | SKA Rostov-on-Don
|
42 | 16 | 10 | 16 | 57 | 64 | −7 | 42 | |
| 10 | Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don
|
42 | 16 | 8 | 18 | 59 | 67 | −8 | 40 | |
| 11 | Shinnik Yaroslavl
|
42 | 16 | 8 | 18 | 48 | 48 | 0 | 40 | |
| 12 | Geolog Tyumen
|
42 | 17 | 5 | 20 | 46 | 58 | −12 | 39 | |
| 13 | Spartak Ordjonikidze
|
42 | 15 | 9 | 18 | 57 | 60 | −3 | 39 | |
| 14 | Tavriya Simferopol
|
42 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 34 | 43 | −9 | 38[a] | |
| 15 | Kuzbass Kemerevo
|
42 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 38 | 39 | −1 | 38[a] | |
| 16 | Dinamo Batumi
|
42 | 15 | 6 | 21 | 40 | 53 | −13 | 36 | |
| 17 | Metalurh Zaporizhia
|
42 | 12 | 13 | 17 | 30 | 43 | −13 | 36[a] | |
| 18 |  Kotayk Abovyan
|
42 | 14 | 7 | 21 | 55 | 83 | −28 | 35 | |
| 19 | Kuban Krasnodar
|
42 | 12 | 11 | 19 | 41 | 56 | −15 | 35 | |
| 20 | Zarya Voroshylovhrad (R)
|
42 | 11 | 10 | 21 | 44 | 59 | −15 | 32 | Relegation to Second League |
| 21 | Zvezda Perm (R)
|
42 | 10 | 12 | 20 | 37 | 69 | −32 | 32 | |
| 22 | Kolos Nikopol (R)
|
42 | 10 | 7 | 25 | 31 | 62 | −31 | 27 |
| # | Player | Club | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mukhsin Mukhamadiyev | Pamir Dushanbe | 22 |
| Aleksandr Nikitin | Rotor Volgograd | 22 | |
| 3 | Viktor Khlus | Guria Lanchkhuti | 21 |
| 4 | Valeriy Korneyev | Dynamo Stavropol | 19 |
| Merab Zhordania | Guria Lanchkhuti | 19 | |
| 6 | Sergei Andreyev | Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don | 18 |
| Jevgenijs Milevskis | Daugava Riga | 18 | |
| Hamlet Mkhitaryan | Kotayk Abovian | 18 | |
| 9 | Oleksandr Malyshenko | Zorya Voroshylovhrad | 17 |
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