The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (Russian: Кубок СССР),^{[lower-alpha 1]} was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournament was known as Soviet/CIS Cup (Russian: Кубок СССР—СНГ). As a knockout tournament it was conducted parallel to the All-Union league competitions in double round-robin format.

The winner of the competition was awarded a qualification to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, unless it already qualified for the European Cup, in turn passed the qualification to the finalist. In case if a team would win the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and not win its national league cup titles the next year, it qualified to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup along with the new cup holder. The first participation in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup took place in 1965–66 when Dynamo Kyiv qualified for the European competition for winning the 1964 Soviet Cup.

The winner of the 1991–92 season competed in European competitions representing the Russian Federation instead of CIS, the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Format of competitions was constantly changing.

The very first edition of the competition in 1936 was a single-elimination tournament (more precisely sudden-death tournament) throughout all rounds. It was played during the season's summer intermission of the 1936 split season. The tournament consisted of seven rounds starting with the Round of 128.

The first changes took place in the 1938 Soviet Cup when there was introduced a preliminary (qualification) stage as the number of participants grew. The competition still was a single-elimination tournament with only more added rounds (up to 9). All teams of masters (All-Union league teams) started from the final stage. The competition rounds were in-mixed within the league's playing calendar for the first time. The final stage contained 6 rounds.

In 1939 the competition was expanded as number of participants grew over 6 times. The preliminary stage was expanded and included republican football cup for each union republic, winners of which would qualify for the Soviet Cup.

In 1940 the competition was split. The league teams (Groups A and B) were scheduled to play for the All-Union Sports Committee Cup, while non-league teams (republican level) were competing in a separate bracket, winner of which would play the All-Union Sports Committee Cup holder. However, due to scheduling issues the All-Union Sports Committee Cup was postponed and never took place.

Until 1984 the Soviet Cup corresponded to the calendar of the whole Soviet football "spring"-"fall", however after that it changed to "fall"-"spring" calendar which synchronized it with the most of Europe.

In 1959-1960 the competition was conducted for two years. From 1965 to 1968 seasons were overlapping each other.

Until 1968, the competition contained a stage known as "Zonal tournament" which was a qualification stage for the main tournament. Since then, the tournament was restricted to professional clubs (teams of masters) of the All-Union competition (tiers 1 through 3). Until 1957, in the tournament participated "teams of physical culture"^[1] (Soviet "newspeak" (phraseology) for non-professional, amateur teams). After 1957 teams of physical culture competed in a separate competition known as the Soviet Amateur Cup.^{[lower-alpha 2]} In 1979 to 1982 there was a group stage better teams of which would continue in a traditional single-game elimination format.^[1]

The 1992 Soviet Cup Final took place after the fall of the Soviet Union in the independent Russia.^{[2][1][3][4][5]}

All tournaments final were played in a single game in Moscow, but until introduction of penalty kicks in early 1970s as a tiebreaker some finals that ended in tie were replayed. Introduction of the penalty shoot-out was adopted for tiebreaker took place in 1972 after such procedure was adopted by FIFA in 1970.

Until 1955 the tournament finals were played at Central Stadium "Dynamo", after being transferred to Central Stadium of Lenin (today Luzhniki Stadium).^{[citation needed]}

The cup itself is an artistically crafted crystal vase in a silver frame. The cup is crowned with a bronze figurine of a football player with a ball. The names of the teams that won the cup are engraved on the lid and base.

The trophy's height is 57 cm (22 in), weight is 6 kg (13 lb). In 1992, after Spartak Moscow won the last USSR Cup, the trophy was given to the club forever.

The cup itself was bought in an ordinary Moscow thrift store.^[6] The first chairman of the All-Union Football Section, Aleksei Sokolov, took a liking to the small pitcher, which it was decided to make a transferable trophy.^[6][7] Few people knew about the Davis Cup in the Soviet Union at that time, and accusations of plagiarism could not follow by definition.

Together with the All-Union Council on Physical Culture and Sport inspector Morar, Aleksei Sokolov created a sketch of the future prize.^[8] The jewelers attached silver legs to the base and built a lid with a small hole on top. There they mounted a figurine of a football player, donated by Raspevin, a great fan of this game. The crystal chest of the trophy was decorated with the coat of arms of the USSR.

Notes:

• The "teams" column includes number of participants in the final stage (tournament proper). Those with asterisk (x*) indicates that there was a preliminary (qualification) stage with additional number of participants.
• In seasons 1990–91 and 1991–92 (dissolution of the Soviet Union) due to political situation in the Soviet Union, the Football Federation of the Soviet Union was nominally including teams without confirmation whether they would be competing in the competition. The Soviet Union was slowly disintegrating and former union republics were succeeding away, while the Football Federation of the Soviet Union remained in the "position of reality denial". For example, starting from January of 1990 the Georgian Football Federation has officially separated away from the Football Federation of the Soviet Union and all its clubs quit the All-Union competitions, nonetheless the Soviet Union football officials continued to place Georgian teams in the Soviet Cup competitions.

Another coach Albert Vollrat won two cups in 1946 and 1947.