The competitions of the league were conducted as part of the whole Soviet event and were split in nine groups geographically as regional zones.
In the article a regional designation in parentheses is conditional (for better perspective) and was never actually openly publicized.
The competitions were composed of two stages starting with nine zonal groups, nine winners of which would qualify for three group promotional double round-robin tournaments (Zone Finals), three winners of those would actually gain their promotions.
The main tie-breaker on points tie was number of wins, therefore in the Zone II Metallurg Magnitogorsk placed 8th above Lokomotiv Gorkiy and Dinamo Kirov.
In case of points tie occurring for the first place, a separate play-off was to be scheduled.