# 1971 Soviet Top League

The 1971 season of the Soviet Top League saw Dynamo Kyiv clinching their title after three unsuccessful seasons. This season was also unique for successful performances of non-RSFSR clubs: Ararat Yerevan from the Armenian SSR took the second place, while bronze medals were awarded to Dinamo Tbilisi.

## Final league table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Dynamo Kyiv (C) | 30 | 17 | 10 | 3 | 41 | 17 | +24 | 44 | Qualification for European Cup first round |
| 2 | Ararat Yerevan | 30 | 13 | 11 | 6 | 37 | 28 | +9 | 37 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 3 | Dinamo Tbilisi | 30 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 33 | 33 | 0 | 36 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 4 | Zarya Voroshilovgrad | 30 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 29 | 23 | +6 | 33 | |
| 5 | Dynamo Moscow | 30 | 9 | 13 | 8 | 35 | 22 | +13 | 31 | |
| 6 | Spartak Moscow | 30 | 9 | 13 | 8 | 35 | 31 | +4 | 31 | Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round |
| 7 | Torpedo Moscow | 30 | 4 | 20 | 6 | 27 | 27 | 0 | 28 | |
| 8 | Kairat Alma-Ata | 30 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 36 | 40 | −4 | 28 | |
| 9 | Neftchi Baku | 30 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 30 | 34 | −4 | 28 | |
| 10 | Karpaty Lviv | 30 | 5 | 18 | 7 | 30 | 35 | −5 | 28 | |
| 11 | Dinamo Minsk | 30 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 36 | 43 | −7 | 28 | |
| 12 | CSKA Moscow | 30 | 7 | 12 | 11 | 34 | 36 | −2 | 26 | |
| 13 | Zenit Leningrad | 30 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 29 | 32 | −3 | 26 | |
| 14 | SKA Rostov-on-Don | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 35 | 43 | −8 | 26 | |
| 15 | Pakhtakor Tashkent (R) | 30 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 29 | 46 | −17 | 26 | Relegation to First League |
| 16 | Shakhtar Donetsk (R) | 30 | 10 | 4 | 16 | 31 | 37 | −6 | 24 | Relegation to First League |

## Results

| Home \ Away | ARA | CSK | DYK | DMN | DYN | DTB | KAI | KAR | NEF | PAK | SHA | SKA | SPA | TOR | ZAR | ZEN |
| Ararat Yerevan | | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–2 |
| CSKA Moscow | 0–1 | | 0–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 6–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 3–3 | 1–2 | 3–0 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 2–0 | 4–1 | | 3–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 4–3 | 4–0 | 3–2 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Dinamo Minsk | 4–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 |
| Dynamo Moscow | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 8–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| Dinamo Tbilisi | 0–4 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 0–2 | | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 |
| Kairat Alma-Ata | 2–2 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 3–3 | 1–2 | 2–1 | | 2–2 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 3–1 |
| Karpaty Lviv | 2–2 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 3–1 | 1–3 | 2–2 | 2–3 | | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 |
| Neftçi Baku | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 4–0 | | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 5–3 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 |
| Pakhtakor Tashkent | 0–0 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 5–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | 2–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 3–3 | | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 |
| SKA Rostov-on-Don | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 3–3 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 4–2 | 2–1 | | 1–2 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 |
| Spartak Moscow | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–1 |
| Torpedo Moscow | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 3–3 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 3–2 | 2–2 | | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| Zarya Voroshilovgrad | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 4–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | | 1–0 |
| Zenit Leningrad | 3–3 | 5–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 4–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | |

## Top scorers
### 16 goals

* Eduard Malofeyev (Dinamo Minsk)

### 14 goals

* Eduard Markarov (Ararat)

### 10 goals

* Anatoliy Banishevskiy (Neftchi)
* Viktor Kolotov (Dynamo Kyiv)
* Vitaliy Shevchenko (Neftchi)

### 9 goals

* Valery Yaremchenko (Shakhtar)
* Aleksei Yeskov (SKA Rostov-on-Don)

### 8 goals

* Berador Abduraimov (Pakhtakor)
* Anzor Chikhladze (SKA Rostov-on-Don)
* Boris Kopeikin (CSKA Moscow)
* Eduard Kozinkevich (Shakhtar)
* Anatoliy Puzach (Dynamo Kyiv)
* Pavel Sadyrin (Zenit)

## Attendances

| Rank | Team | Home games | Average attendance |
| 1 | Dynamo Kyiv | 15 | 60,667 |
| 2 | Ararat | 15 | 47,533 |
| 3 | Karpaty Lviv | 15 | 37,667 |
| 4 | FC Zenit | 15 | 34,000 |
| 5 | Zorya | 15 | 31,333 |
| 6 | FC Dinamo Minsk | 15 | 28,933 |
| 7 | FC Dynamo Moscow | 15 | 28,833 |
| 8 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 15 | 28,800 |
| 9 | Neftçi PFK | 15 | 28,733 |
| 10 | FC Spartak Moscow | 15 | 28,333 |
| 11 | PFC CSKA | 15 | 27,200 |
| 12 | FC Dinamo Tbilisi | 15 | 25,800 |
| 13 | FC Kairat | 15 | 22,067 |
| 14 | Paxtakor | 15 | 19,533 |
| 15 | SKA Rostov-on-Don | 15 | 19,200 |
| 16 | Torpedo Moscow | 15 | 13,133 |