The award Soviet Footballer of the Year was awarded to the best footballer of the Soviet Union from 1964 until 1991. The poll was conducted among journalists by the weekly sport newspaper Football (Football-Hockey). Each journalist named his own top three player every year. Each place carried a point weight such as 1st place was worth 3 pts., 2nd - 2, and 3rd - 1.
The idea for the award appeared right after Lev Yashin has received Ballon d'Or award in 1963 (Ballon d'Or 1963).
References
Soviet Footballer of the Year Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA