Russia's women's national team begins life as an independent side under Lapshin

After the Soviet Union dissolved at the end of 1991, its sports teams had to be rebuilt as separate national sides. Women's football was no exception. Russia's women's team took over the main part of the Soviet footballing legacy and began competing under its own flag in the early 1990s.

Oleg Lapshin, who had already worked with the Soviet women's team, led the new Russian side until 1994. His task was to keep a squad together during a turbulent period, when funding was thin, domestic clubs were reorganising and the women's game had far less attention than the men's.

The period mattered because it set the foundations for Russia's later international appearances, including its entry into European qualifying competitions. Lapshin's work in these early years is the reason he is remembered as a link between the Soviet era and the first years of Russian women's football.