Soviet Figure Skating Championships
The Soviet Figure Skating Championships – also known as the USSR Figure Skating Championships – were an annual figure skating competition organized by the Figure Skating Federation of the USSR to crown the national champions of the Soviet Union. The first Soviet Championships were held in 1924 in Moscow, while the final Soviet Championships were held in 1991 in Kyiv. Competitions were frequently interrupted early on, particularly leading up to and during World War II.
Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Sergei Chetverukhin and Alexandre Fadeev are tied for winning the most Soviet Championship titles in men's singles, Julia Katkhanova holds the record in women's singles, and Tatyana Tolmachova and Alexander Tolmachev hold the record in pair skating. Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov hold the record in ice dance, although Pakhomova won an additional three titles with a previous partner.
History
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – more commonly referred to as the USSR or the Soviet Union – was established in 1922 following World War I and the Russian Revolution. The first Soviet Figure Skating Championships were held in 1924 in Moscow, and continued to 1941 with frequent interruptions leading up to World War II. Competitions were held without interruption from 1945. Ice dance made its debuted at the 1946 Soviet Championships. The figure skating competitions at the 1958 Spartakiad of the RSFSR served as the 1958 Soviet Championships; the same was true for the 1974 and 1978 Spartakiads of the Peoples of the USSR. The last installment was held in December 1991 in Kyiv, in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.After the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Russia and the other eleven Soviet republics emerged as independent nations. Numerous Soviet medalists went on to have successful careers competing in the Russian Figure Skating Championships: Alexei Urmanov won four Russian men's titles from 1993 to 1996, Maria Butyrskaya won six women's titles between 1993 and 1999, Marina Eltsova and Andrei Bushkov won four pairs titles between 1993 and 1998, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov won the pairs title in 1996, Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov won the ice dance title in 1996, and Anjelika Krylova and Vladimir Fedorov won the ice dance titles in 1993 to 1994. Krylova went on to win an additional three titles with another partner. Viktor Petrenko went on to win the men's title in the 1994 Ukrainian Figure Skating Championships.