Soviet First League 1991 was the last season of the Soviet First League. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the football structure was reformed. All of its participants have entered the Top Divisions of the republics of their origin, except of Dinamo Sukhumi that because of the 1992-93 War in Abkhazia was dissolved.

Due to the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, a process of dissolution of the Soviet Union accelerated as well as a process of decommunization in former union republics. Number of cities changed their names returning to their original names.

Teams

Promoted teams

• FC Uralmash Sverdlovsk – Winner of the 1990 Soviet Second League, Zone Center (returning after an absence of 10 seasons)
• FC Bukovina Chernovtsy – Winner of the 1990 Soviet Second League, Zone West (debut)
• FC Neftianik Fergona – Winner of the 1990 Soviet Second League, Zone East (debut)
• FC Novbakhor Namangan – Runner-up of the 1990 Soviet Second League, Zone East (debut)
• FC Textilshchik Kamyshin – Runner-up of the 1990 Soviet Second League, Zone Center (debut)
• FC Daugava Riga – Runner-up of the 1990 Soviet Second League, Zone West (debut)

Relegated teams

• Rotor Volgograd – (Returning after 2 seasons)

Renamed teams

• Prior to the start of the season Tiras Tiraspol was renamed to Tiligul Tiraspol.
• Prior to the start of the season Nistru Kishenev was renamed to Zimbrul Kishinev.

Replaced or withdrawn teams

With fall of the Soviet Union, the promoted FC Daugava Riga was dissolved and replaced with FC Pardaugava Riga that was based on the junior squad of the Latvia national U-21 football team and took part in the 1990 Baltic League placing only 15th out 17 teams.

Locations

Rotor

Tiligul

Uralmash

Rostselmash

Bukovyna

Tavriya

Neftiannik

Lokomotiv

Novbahor

Dinamo Sukh

Tekstilschik

Shinnik

Fakel

Kairat

Neftchi

Dinamo Stav

Kotayk

Zenit

Zimbru

Geolog

Kuban

Pardaugava

Location of teams in the 1991 Soviet First League.

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Rotor Volgograd (C)	42	24	11	7	79	44	+35	59	Promoted to the 1992 Soviet Top League
2	Tiligul Tiraspol	42	22	10	10	64	45	+19	54
3	Uralmash Yekaterinburg/Sverdlovsk	42	21	9	12	68	40	+28	51
4	Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don	42	20	10	12	47	39	+8	50
5	Bukovyna Chernivtsi	42	20	8	14	56	49	+7	48	Withdrew
6	Tavriya Simferopol	42	19	10	13	64	56	+8	48
7	Neftiannik Fergona	42	21	5	16	54	56	−2	47	Promoted to the 1992 Soviet Top League
8	Lokomotiv Nizhniy Novgorod	42	17	13	12	46	35	+11	47
9	Novbahor	42	19	7	16	60	53	+7	45
10	Dinamo Sukhumi	42	16	11	15	50	50	0	43
11	Textilschik Kamyshin	42	15	13	14	56	52	+4	43
12	Shinnik Yaroslavl	42	17	7	18	57	59	−2	41
13	Fakel Voronezh	42	17	7	18	45	50	−5	41
14	Kairat Almaty	42	17	6	19	58	52	+6	40	Promoted to the 1992 Soviet Top League
15	Neftchi Baku	42	17	5	20	60	58	+2	39
16	Dinamo Stavropol	42	14	11	17	50	54	−4	39
17	Kotayk Abovyan	42	15	7	20	30	48	−18	37	Withdrew
18	Zenit St. Petersburg/Leningrad	42	11	14	17	44	50	−6	36	Promoted to the 1992 Soviet Top League
19	Zimbru Chisinau	42	11	13	18	36	49	−13	35
20	Geolog Tyumen	42	11	13	18	32	47	−15	35
21	Kuban Krasnodar	42	8	10	24	40	68	−28	26
22	Pardaugava Riga	42	7	6	29	31	73	−42	20	Withdrew

Notes:

• On 6 September 1991, the city of Leningrad was renamed into Saint Petersburg
• On 4 September 1991, the city of Sverdlovsk was renamed into Yekaterinburg

Number of teams by union republic

Rank	Union republic	Number of teams	Club(s)
1	RSFSR	11	Dinamo Stavropol, Fakel Voronezh, Geolog Tyumen, Kuban Krasnodar, Lokomotiv Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostselmash Rostov-na-Donu, Rotor Volgograd, Shinnik Yaroslavl, Tekstilschik Kamyshin, Uralmash Yekaterinburg, Zenit Saint Petersburg
2	Moldavian SSR	2	Tiligul Tiraspol, Zimbru Kishenev
	Ukrainian SSR		Bukovina Chernovtsy, Tavriya Simferopol
	Uzbek SSR		Navbahor Namangan, Neftiannik Fergana
5	Armenian SSR	1	Kotaik Abovian
	Azerbaijan SSR		Neftchi Baku
	Georgian SSR / ( Abkhazia)		Dinamo Sukhumi
	Kazakh SSR		Kairat Alma-Ata
	Latvian SSR		Pardaugava Riga

Top scorers

Managers