1961 Soviet Top League

22 teams took part in the league with FC Dynamo Kyiv winning the championship (the first Soviet champion from outside Moscow).

Round 1[]

Group A[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Torpedo Moscow	20	16	1	3	48	20	+28	33	Qualification for Places 1–10 group
2	Lokomotiv Moscow	20	9	8	3	35	23	+12	26
3	Avangard Kharkov	20	10	6	4	22	15	+7	26
4	Dinamo Tbilisi	20	10	5	5	36	22	+14	25
5	SKA Rostov-on-Don	20	9	4	7	39	22	+17	22
6	Shakhter Stalino	20	7	5	8	22	23	−1	19	Qualification for Places 11–22 group
7	Neftyanik Baku	20	4	8	8	20	34	−14	16
8	Trud Voronezh	20	5	5	10	24	31	−7	15
9		20	5	5	10	22	30	−8	15
10	Daugava Rīga	20	3	6	11	21	41	−20	12
11	Spartak Vilnius	20	3	5	12	18	46	−28	11

Group B[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	CSKA Moscow	20	13	3	4	55	28	+27	29	Qualification for Places 1–10 group
2	Dynamo Kyiv	20	12	5	3	41	19	+22	29
3	Spartak Moscow	20	10	5	5	38	21	+17	25
4	Spartak Yerevan	20	8	7	5	27	26	+1	23
5	Pakhtakor Tashkent	20	9	5	6	30	33	−3	23
6	Dynamo Moscow	20	8	5	7	33	29	+4	21	Qualification for Places 11–22 group
7	Kairat Almaty	20	6	5	9	23	32	−9	17
8	Zenit Leningrad	20	6	5	9	25	35	−10	17
9	Moldova Chisinau	20	6	4	10	30	36	−6	16
10	Belarus Minsk	20	4	5	11	17	31	−14	13
11	Kalev Tallinn	20	0	7	13	14	43	−29	7

Round 2[]

Places 1–10[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Dynamo Kyiv (C)	30	18	9	3	58	28	+30	45
2	Torpedo Moscow	30	19	3	8	68	35	+33	41
3	Spartak Moscow	30	16	8	6	57	34	+23	40
4	CSKA Moscow	30	16	6	8	61	43	+18	38
5	Lokomotiv Moscow	30	13	12	5	58	42	+16	38
6	Avangard Kharkov	30	12	10	8	30	25	+5	34
7	Dinamo Tbilisi	30	13	7	10	50	30	+20	33
8	Spartak Yerevan	30	11	10	9	37	41	−4	32
9	SKA Rostov-on-Don	30	11	8	11	54	36	+18	30
10	Pakhtakor Tashkent	30	11	8	11	44	61	−17	30

Places 11–22[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
11	Dynamo Moscow	32	17	7	8	57	39	+18	41
12	Shakhter Stalino	32	12	10	10	45	37	+8	34
13	Zenit Leningrad	32	12	8	12	50	52	−2	32
14	[a]	32	12	7	13	49	47	+2	31
15	Trud Voronezh[b] (R)	32	11	8	13	39	38	+1	30	Relegation to Class B
16	Moldova Chisinau	32	12	6	14	46	54	−8	30
17	Kairat Alma-Ata	32	10	8	14	31	48	−17	28
18	Neftyanik Baku	32	7	13	12	36	52	−16	27
19	Belarus Minsk	32	7	10	15	29	44	−15	24
20	Spartak Vilnius	32	7	5	20	33	64	−31	19
21	Daugava Rīga	32	5	7	20	30	63	−33	17
22	Kalev Tallinn (R)	32	1	8	23	25	74	−49	10	Qualification for Relegation play-off

Top scorers[]

22 goals

• Gennadi Gusarov (Torpedo Moscow)

20 goals

• Gennadi Krasnitsky (Pakhtakor Tashkent)
• Viktor Voroshilov (Lokomotiv Moscow)

18 goals

• Viktor Kanevskyi (Dynamo Kyiv)
• Aleksei Mamykin (CSKA Moscow)

15 goals

• Igor Chislenko (Dynamo Moscow)
• Sergey Kvochkin (Kairat Alma-Ata)

14 goals

• Zaur Kaloyev (Dinamo Tbilisi)
• Galimzyan Khusainov (Spartak Moscow)
• (Shakhtyor Stalino)

Promotion/Relegation Tournament[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Torpedo Kutaisi (R)	4	3	0	1	7	4	+3	6	Promotion to Class A
2	Kalev Tallinn (R)	4	2	0	2	4	2	+2	4	Relegation to Class B
3	Lokomotiv Tbilisi	4	1	0	3	3	8	−5	2

References[]

• Soviet Union - List of final tables (RSSSF)