Football Cup of the Ukrainian SSR (, ) was a playoff republican competitions in association football that were taken place in Ukrainian SSR in 1936–1991 and were predecessors of the Ukrainian Cup.Kolomiyets, A. Did you know that Ukrainian cup competitions will soon turn 80 years of age? (А чи знаєте ви, що розіграшу Кубка України скоро виповниться 80 років?). Kiev Oblast Football Federation. The competition was originally called a Football championship of UkrSSR for exhibition teams of sports societies in 1936 and 1937. The first cup trophy was awarded in 1937, and starting in 1938, the competition was renamed the Football Cup of the Ukrainian SSR as it was commemorated on the Soviet envelope.
History Participation was open to everyone, whether a team from the Soviet Top League or from an educational institution, as long as none of the players competed in the Soviet Cup simultaneously. Early seasons of the cup tournament were called a spring contest, which allowed them to be considered a championship title competition rather than a cup competition. However, older Ministry of Youth and Sports documents show that the spring contest competitions were indeed considered a football cup competition.
In 1938, the Ukrainian Cup qualification stage was included in the 1938 Soviet Cup qualification for the first time, while both later stages of the 1938 tournaments were conducted in parallel to each other. It was also the first time the Ukrainian Spring Contest was referred to as the Ukrainian Cup. Following that season, participation of the better Ukrainian teams in the Ukrainian Cup was disrupted, and the 1939 season of the Ukrainian Cup did not include teams of masters that competed only in the Soviet Cup. The 1940 season had a similar organization to the previous 1939, but the 1940 Soviet Cup failed to take place due to scheduling issues, and no Ukrainian teams of masters participated in any cup competition that season. The competition was interrupted in 1941–1943 due to World War II.
In 1944, the Ukrainian Cup was renewed and played after the 1944 Soviet Cup. It also included all three better Ukrainian teams (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Stalino) that competed in the Soviet Cup. In 1945, both the 1945 Ukrainian Cup and the 1945 Soviet Cup included better Ukrainian teams such as Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar Donetsk (Stakhanovets Stalino at that time), and others. Both tournaments were conducted in the same timeframe during the autumn of 1945. The 1946 Soviet Cup was shortened, and only two (2) teams from Ukraine competed in it (Dynamo Kyiv and Spartak Uzhhorod), while the 1946 Ukrainian Cup was conducted in full. In 1947, the 1947 Soviet Cup was conducted in the summer and included only teams from Pervaya Grouppa and Vtoraya Grouppa, involving all Ukrainian teams of those "Grouppas", while the 1947 Ukrainian Cup was conducted in the fall and also included all Ukrainian teams of those "Grouppas" as well as other teams. The 1948 Soviet Cup was once again shortened and only two (2) Ukrainian teams (Dynamo Kyiv and Lokomotyv Kharkiv) competed in it, while the 1948 Ukrainian Cup involved participation of most of the Ukrainian teams.
In 1949, there was a big reform of the Soviet Cup, all participants of the Soviet Pervaya and Vtoraya "Grouppas" were excused from participation in their republican cup tournaments and had to competed only in the Soviet Cup, while winners of the republican cup tournaments were awarded a guaranteed place in the 1949 Soviet Cup. It revived the tournament organization of the 1939 Soviet Cup. Since then, the Ukrainian Cup was completely degraded as a regional-level qualification stage of the Soviet Cup.
In 1957, all republican level cup competitions were removed from qualification for the Soviet Cup, and winners (later better teams) of them qualified for the Soviet Amateur Cup, while the Soviet Cup was made exclusive predominantly for the league teams. Since then, the Ukrainian Cup was officially regarded as the competition of the collective of physical culture (KFK), a Soviet term for amateur sports.
In 1972, for the next five seasons, there was established Ukrainian Cup for the Ukrainian teams of the Pervaya and Vtoraya leagues as the award of the "Radianska Ukrayina" newspaper. It was revived once more in 1990. The last winner FC Temp Shepetivka of the Soviet Ukrainian Cup among the Second League teams was allowed to join the Ukrainian Premier League in 1991.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Cup was re-established as a normal competition which involves participation of all professional football clubs. Later in 1996, the Football Federation of Ukraine reorganized the Ukrainian Cup by introducing the Ukrainian Amateur Cup and limiting participation of the non-League clubs in the national cup competition.
During the World War II, the crystal trophy, cup of the Ukrainian SSR, was not evacuated and was stolen by one of employees of the All-Ukrainian Council of Physical Culture. During the Nazi occupation of Kiev, the trophy appeared in a store of random things at Velyka Vasylkivska street and was spotted by Kiev footballers who stayed behind and played for a local team Rukh Kyiv. The athletes informed the municipal department of education and culture which in turn on 19 May 1942 wrote a letter to the administration of the antique store with a request to return them the Cup and inform the name of individual who pawned it in the store. It is unknown if the person who stole the trophy was ever found, but the Cup was returned. In this way, the athletes who were later labeled as "traitors" by the Soviet regime saved the trophy for Ukrainian football of the post-war period.
List of finals Springtime Contest The competition was known as the Springtime Contest. It was conducted in spring, unlike the regular round-robin championship, was taking place in the fall. YearVenueWinnerScoreRunner-up1936Final24 June 1936 18:00 (MST) Kiev – Balytskyi Stadium Attendance: 35,000Dynamo Kyiv Viktor Shylovsky Konstantin Shchegotsky Mykola Korotkykh 6 – 0 (2 – 0)Dynamo Odessa Volodymyr Tokar 1937Final18 May 1937 18:00 (MST) Kiev – Balytskyi Stadium Attendance: 25,000Dynamo Kyiv Oleksiy Klymenko Makar Honcharenko Viktor Shylovsky Mykola Makhynia 4 – 2 (0 – 1)Dynamo Odessa Leonid Oriekhov
Ukrainian Cup The competition was integrated into the Soviet Cup. In 1938, both competitions ran in parallel; the 1938 season was partially used as the preliminary stage. Ten teams that qualified from 5 regional zones joined with 6 teams of masters. These 16 teams qualified for both the Soviet Cup and the Football Cup of Ukraine, which ran separately. In 1939 and 1940, only the winner of the Ukrainian Cup would qualify for the Soviet Cup. Following World War II, the Ukrainian Cup was once again conducted as a separate competition among all teams, including the "teams of masters". Starting from 1949, the competition was finally integrated into the Soviet Cup as its preliminary stage for good. YearVenueWinnerScoreRunner-up1938Final15 October 1938 16:00 (MST) Kiev – Yezhov Stadium Attendance: 15,000Dynamo Kyiv Petro Laiko Viktor Shylovsky 3 – 1 (1 – 0)Lokomotyv Kyiv Oleksandr Shatskyi 1944FinalKievDynamo Kyiv won the Final Group1945Final8 November 1945 ?:? (MST) Kiev – Dynamo Stadium Attendance: ?Lokomotyv Kharkiv Anatoliy Horokhov 1 – 0 (0 – 0)Dynamo Kyiv 1946Final12 November 1946 14:30 (MST) Kiev – Dynamo Stadium Attendance: 20,000Dynamo Kyiv Pavlo Vinkovatyi 2 – 0 (2 – 0)Lokomotyv Kharkiv1947Final9 November 1947 14:00 (MST) Kiev – Dynamo Stadium Attendance: 12,000Dynamo Kyiv Mykhailo Chaplyhin Fedir Dashkov Pavlo Vinkovatyi Pyotr Dementiev 5 – 1 (3 – 1)Kharchovyk Odesa Mykola Potapov 1948Final26 October 1948 15:00 (MST) Kiev – Dynamo Stadium Attendance: 7,000Dynamo Kyiv Viktor Zhylin Heorhiy Ponomariov Pavlo Vinkovatyi 4 – 1 (2 – 0)Bilshovyk Mukacheve József Egervári
Ukrainian Cup (Soviet Cup qualification) YearWinnerRunner-upScoreSoviet Cup1939Avanhard KramatorskKharchovyk Odessa2 – 0Avanhard Kramatorsk1940Dynamo DnipropetrovskLokomotyv Odessa2 – 2(6 – 2 replay)Dynamo DnipropetrovskZenit Kharkiv1949VPS KharkivVodnyk Odessa5 – 1Zenit Kharkiv1950Spartak UzhhorodMetalurh Zaporizhia4 – 2Spartak UzhhorodMetalurh Zaporizhia1951Metalurh ZaporizhiaBO Lviv4 – 0Metalurh Zaporizhia1952Metalurh ZaporizhiaBO Lviv6 – 3Metalurh Zaporizhia1953Torpedo KirovohradLokomotyv Poltava3 – 1Torpedo Kirovohrad1954Mashbud KyivOBO Kyiv1 – 0, 3 – 1Mashynobudivnyk Kyiv1955Mashbud KyivLokomotyv Artemivsk2 – 1Mashynobudivnyk Kyiv1956Kolhospnyk PoltavaMashbud Zaporizhia4 – 0no competitionThe competition transformed into a feeder of the Soviet Amateur Cup.
List of finals (after 1957) Since 1957, the Ukrainian Cup, as the prize of the "Radyanska Ukrayina" newspaper,From the history of Berdychiv football (З історії бердичівського футболу). Miy Berdychiv. 12 September 2016 became a preliminary competition for the Soviet Amateur Cup. In 1970s, there was an attempt to organize a parallel competition for the "teams of masters" (Soviet professional status) which did not last for long.
Starting from 1960, all quarterfinalists (there were 5 of them) qualified to the Soviet Amateur Cup beside the finalists.