The poll was conducted among journalists by the weekly sport newspaper Football (Football-Hockey).
[1] Each journalist named his own top three player every year.
The best goal-scorer of the Soviet Top League was awarded with the "Best Topscorer of the Year".
[citation needed] Before becoming an official award before 1964, in 1950s Moskovskij Komsomolets and Komsomolskaya Pravda were conducting own polls to honour the best footballer of the country.
[citation needed] After the Soviet Union dissolved most of the new independent countries created their own awards to the best footballer of the year.