1937 Soviet Top League

The 1937 Soviet Top League was the third season of the top-tier all-Union league competitions (Gruppa A). The league competition started a week after conculusion of the 1937 Soviet Cup.

Before the start of the season, two sports societies Dynamo and Spartak were awarded the order of Lenin on resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee of 22 July 1937.^[1] Beside the sports societies, many awards were given to individual athletes among which were 12 footballers.

The defending champion for this edition was FC Spartak Moscow. The season started somewhat late on July 23, 1937, with the game in Kyiv where the League newcomer Metallurg surprisingly defeated the local Dynamo 2:0. The conclusion of the season came on October 30, 1937, with the games in Tbilisi and Moscow's Sokolniki.^[2] That game on CSKA Stadium became a culminating as the Army team hold the defending champions to a draw that left Spartak without their title. Interesting is the fact that less than a week prior to that Dynamo Moscow was able to defeat CDKA 5:1 setting them three points ahead of Spartak.

Before the start of the football season, the All-Union Committee implemented several changes to rules (Laws of the Game).^[3]

• goal kick^[3]
• throw-in^[3]
• substitutions^[3]
• players' discipline^[3]

Also, football players of exhibition teams (teams of masters) were given a participant's ticket. The purpose of the innovation was set out in the instructions: "Each footballer participating in the championship receives a "Footballer's Book", which he must present before the game. This will deprive teams of the opportunity to field disqualified players or players on a roster for other teams."^[4] No players were allowed to play at any match without the "Footballer's Book".^[4]

Unlike last seasons, it was decided to have both season halves combined. Originally the All-Union Committee planned to hold the competition from July 13 to September 30, 1937, in four groups: "A" and "B" with 8 participants in each and "V" and "G" with 10.^[1] Teams that placed last would switch with the top teams from lower tier.^[1] There was introduced an additional match if teams would finish with equal points for top two and bottom two.^[1] Teams were allowed to have from 15 to 25 footballers on their roster.^[1]

Later there were added two additional tiers: Group "D" with 11 teams and Group "Goroda Vostoka" (Cities of the East) with 7. Also, number of participants in Group G was increased to 12.

The competition calendar, which was composed in spring, had to be rearranged following the Basque team tour of the Soviet Union and the Spartak voyage to Europe. Some rounds were overstretched for several weeks, the last season champions Spartak had to start late, and Dinamo Tbilisi played their whole first half of the season abroad and returned to play its home games only in the second half of the season.^[4]

Promoted from 1936 (fall) Gruppa B	Relegated from 1936 (fall) Gruppa A
Serp i Molot Moscow (1st)	CDKA Moscow (8th)

After playing two games in the Group B it was decided to return CDKA Moscow back to the Group A. The Group A was extended once again to nine teams with a new team FC Metallurg Moscow joining the group that won the 1936 Group B fall championship as Serp i Molot Moscow. At the end of the season no teams were relegated as the group was planned to be extended for the next season.

"Resolution of the All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sports under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR^[5]

On the revision of the transfer of the CDKA football team of masters from class "A" to class "B"

1. Considering that the CDKA football team is the only football team of masters in the Red Army (RKKA), and also having examined the results of the investigation into the simultaneous triple workload of the CDKA team players during the autumn season of 1936 (Games: a) for the Soviet championship, b) for the RKKA championship and c) for the Moscow city garrison championship), which led to the withdrawal of a number of the strongest players from the team due to traumatic injuries and to unacceptable physical workload of individual players, and, in addition, taking into account that the CDKA team remains among the strongest teams of the Union from year to year, namely: 1. the 1935 Moscow city champion; 2. In the 1936 spring all-Union [Soviet] championship, it took fourth place among the strongest teams of the Union; 3. In the autumn all-Union championship of the same year, it lagged behind the seven strongest teams of the Union by only half a point;^[a] 4. In the 1937 Soviet Cup, it won a place in the top four of the Soviet Union^[b] (having conceded only one goal in the last three minutes of the game against the finalist, Dynamo (Tbilisi); 5. It has a victory in calendar matches against the 1936 Soviet champion (the Spartak Moscow team); 6. In the same season, it has a 4:1 victory in a friendly match against the Dynamo Moscow team, which won the 1937 Soviet Cup.

The All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sports under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decrees:

1. To transfer the CDKA football team of masters from class "B" to class "A".

2. To rearrange the calendar of the class "A" draw with the inclusion of the CDKA team in it.

3. The games played by the CDKA team for the 1937 Soviet championship in group "B"^[c] with the Spartak (Leningrad) and "Stalinets" (Leningrad), considered friendly.

Acting Chairman of the All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sports under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Elena Knopova.

August 4, 1937"

Spartak Moscow was the base team for the Soviet Union national football team at the 1937 Workers' Summer Olympiad and returned to the Soviet Union after the start of the competition.^[4]

Upon arrival of Spartak, the football team administration was accused of "the imposition of bourgeois morals in the Spartak society."^[4] On September 3, 1937, Nikolai Starostin, who was heading the football section of the All-Union Committee of Sports and Physical Culture and one of the founders of Spartak sports society, was fired.^[4]

• Serp i Molot → Metallurg

Club	Head coach[6]
Spartak Moscow	Konstantin Kvashnin
Dynamo Moscow	Viktor Dubinin
Dynamo Tbilisi	Aleksey Sokolov
Lokomotiv Moscow	Jules Limbeck
Krasnaya Zaria Leningrad	Mikhail Okun
Dynamo Kyiv	Moisey Tovarovsky
Dynamo Leningrad	Mikhail Butusov
Metallurg Moscow	Boris Arkadyev
CDKA Moscow	Mikhail Rushchinsky

Team	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Dynamo Tbilisi	Jules Limbeck	Resigned	March 1937	Pre-season	Aleksey Sokolov
Lokomotiv Moscow	Aleksei Stolyarov				Jules Limbeck	April 1937
Metallurg Moscow	Konstantin Blinkov				Boris Arkadyev
Dynamo Moscow	Konstantin Kvashnin				Viktor Dubinin
Spartak Moscow	Mikhail Kozlov	Elected a president of the Soviet Football Section			Konstantin Kvashnin
Lokomotiv Moscow	Jules Limbeck	undisclosed	August 8, 1937	3rd

Pos	Republic	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	Russian SFSR	Dynamo Moscow (C)	16	8	6	2	37	20	1.850	38	Champions of the Soviet Union
2	Russian SFSR	Spartak Moscow	16	8	5	3	24	16	1.500	37	Runners-up prize recipients
3	Ukrainian SSR	Dynamo Kiev	16	7	6	3	33	24	1.375	36
4	Georgian SSR	Dynamo Tbilisi	16	7	4	5	30	24	1.250	34
5	Russian SFSR	Metallurg Moscow	16	7	2	7	26	21	1.238	32
6	Russian SFSR	Lokomotiv Moscow	16	5	5	6	18	20	0.900	31
7	Russian SFSR	Dynamo Leningrad	16	2	9	5	21	25	0.840	29
8	Russian SFSR	Krasnaya Zarya Leningrad	16	4	4	8	17	31	0.548	28
9	Russian SFSR	CDKA Moscow	16	3	1	12	18	43	0.419	23	Relegation cancelled[d]

(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)

• As the previous the season was filled with violence on the field. According to the Russian sports historian Aksel Vartanyan on July 23, 1937, Dynamo Moscow visited another Dynamo in Leningrad. In several Leningrad newspapers the game was dubbed as the "Battle of the Neva".^[1] During the match the leading footballer of Leningrad team Pyotr Dementyev was hospitalized, while his "offender" Teterin was convoyed from Moscow by the Leningrad Oblast NKVD chief to apologize.

• During the Tbilisi match between Dinamo Tbilisi and Dynamo Kyiv, it was discovered that players of Dynamo Kyiv forgot their "Footballer's Books" in Kyiv and were supposed to be awarded administrative loss. The referee of the game Vladimir Strepikheyev took upon himself and encouragement from Boris Paichadze to hold the match, nonetheless. In the game report protocol Vladimir Strepikheyev noted that personally knowing all players of Dynamo Kyiv he confirmed that all players in the submitted report are correctly noted.^[4]

• Following the match of Dinamo Tbilisi vs Dynamo Kyiv, in two days Vladimir Strepikheyev served one more game in Tbilisi against Dynamo Leningrad before he returned to Moscow. Upon arrival to Moscow, Strepikheyev who refereed the 1937 Soviet Cup Final was arrested and soon executed at age 34.^[4]

• Interesting situation occurred with two rounds to go before the finish when Dynamo Kyiv was ahead with 33 points and the Moscow teams trailing right behind with Dynamo 30 and Spartak 30. Following the loss to Dinamo Tbilisi, Kyiv still had some possibility to keep their lead if Dynamo Moscow would lose to Metallurg and Dynamo Kyiv overpower Spartak.

• 1937 Soviet Cup
• 1937 Group B (Soviet football championship)
• 1937 Group V (Soviet football championship)
• 1937 Group G (Soviet football championship)
• 1937 groups D and cities of Far East

• Soviet Union - List of final tables (RSSSF)