The 1979 Soviet First League was the ninth season of the Soviet First League and the 39th season of the Soviet second tier league competition.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Karpaty Lviv (C, P)	46	27	10	9	89	43	+46	64	Promotion to Top League
2	Kuban Krasnodar (P)	46	22	12	12	70	43	+27	56
3	Pamir Dushanbe	46	23	7	16	56	50	+6	53
4	Shinnik Yaroslavl	46	20	15	11	50	38	+12	52[a]
5	Fakel Voronezh	46	20	10	16	70	54	+16	50
6	Žalgiris Vilnius	46	19	10	17	61	54	+7	48
7	Metalist Kharkiv	46	19	10	17	43	47	−4	48
8	Nistru Kishinev	46	18	14	14	53	51	+2	48[a]
9	Uralmash Sverdlovsk	46	18	12	16	55	45	+10	48
10	Metallurg Zaporozhia	46	19	8	19	69	65	+4	46
11	Torpedo Kutaisi	46	17	15	14	44	40	+4	46[a]
12	Kuzbass Kemerovo	46	17	12	17	49	50	−1	46
13	Spartak Ordjonikidze	46	19	7	20	49	44	+5	45
14	Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk	46	19	7	20	52	61	−9	45
15	SKA Odessa	46	17	11	18	54	61	−7	45
16	Spartak Nalchik	46	16	12	18	50	48	+2	44
17	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	46	16	14	16	57	60	−3	44[a]
18	Tavria Simferopol	46	16	11	19	50	56	−6	43
19	Terek Grozny (R)	46	17	8	21	59	63	−4	42	Relegation to Second League
20	Zvezda Perm (R)	46	16	9	21	45	56	−11	41
21	Traktor Pavlodar (R)	46	14	11	21	37	57	−20	39
22	Dinamo Leningrad (R)	46	15	8	23	52	57	−5	38
23	Kolhozchi Ashkhabad (R)	46	11	12	23	41	76	−35	34
24	Alga Frunze (R)	46	10	9	27	37	73	−36	29

Rank	Union republic	Number of teams	Club(s)
1	RSFSR	10	Kuban Krasnodar, Shinnik Yaroslavl, Fakel Voronezh, Uralmash Sverdlovsk, Kuzbass Kemerevo, Spartak Ordzhonikidze, Spartak Nalchik, Terek Grozny, Zvezda Perm, Dinamo Leningrad
2	Ukrainian SSR	7	Karpaty Lvov, Metallist Kharkov, Metallurg Zaporozhye, Prykarpatye Ivano-Frankovsk, SKA Odessa, Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk, Tavria Simferopol
3	Tajik SSR	1	Pamir Dushanbe
	Lithuanian SSR		Žalgiris Vilnius
	Moldavian SSR		Nistru Kishinev
	Georgian SSR		Torpedo Kutaisi
	Kazakh SSR		Traktor Pavlodar
	Turkmen SSR		Kolhozchi Ashkhabad
	Kyrgyz SSR		Alga Frunze

• 1979 season. RSSSF