Kirov class cruiser

Kirov in 1941
Class overview
Name:	Kirov class
Builders:	Ordzhonikidze Yard, Leningrad Komsomolsk-on-Amur Marti South, Nikolayev
Operators:	Soviet Navy
Preceded by:	Admiral Nakhimov class
Succeeded by:	Chapayev class
Subclasses:	Project 26, Project 26bis, Project 26bis2
Built:	1935–44
In service:	1938–70
Completed:	6
Retired:	6
General characteristics (Project 26)
Type:	Cruiser
Displacement:	7,890 tonnes (7,765 long tons) (standard) 9,436 tonnes (9,287 long tons) (full load)
Length:	191.3 m (627 ft 7 in)
Beam:	17.66 m (57 ft 11 in)
Draught:	6.15 m (20 ft 2 in) (full load)
Installed power:	113,500 shp (84,600 kW) 6 Yarrow-Normand water-tube boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, geared steam turbines
Speed:	35.94 knots (66.56 km/h; 41.36 mph) (on trials)
Endurance:	3,750 nmi (6,940 km; 4,320 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement:	872
Sensors and processing systems:	Arktur underwater acoustic communication system
Armament:	3 × 3 - 180 mm (7.1 in) B-1-P guns 6 × 1 - 100 mm (3.9 in) B-34 dual-purpose guns 6 × 1 - 45-millimetre (1.8 in) 21-K AA guns 4 × 1 - 12.7-millimetre (0.50 in) DShK AA machine guns 2 × 3 - 533-millimetre (21.0 in) torpedo tubes 96–164 mines 50 depth charges
Armour:	Waterline belt: 50 mm (2.0 in) Deck: 50 mm (2.0 in) each Turrets: 50 mm (2.0 in) Barbettes: 50 mm (2.0 in) Conning tower: 150 mm (5.9 in)
Aircraft carried:	2 × KOR-1 seaplanes
Aviation facilities:	1 Heinkel K-12 catapult

The Kirov-class (Project 26) cruisers were a class of six cruisers built in the late 1930s for the Soviet Navy. After the first two ships, armor protection was increased and subsequent ships are sometimes called the Maxim Gorky class. These were the first large ships built by the Soviets from the keel up after the Russian Civil War, and they were derived from the Italian cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli, being designed with assistance from the Italian Ansaldo company. Two ships each were deployed in the Black and Baltic Seas during World War II, while the last pair was still under construction in the Russian Far East and saw no combat during the war. The first four ships bombarded Axis troops and facilities after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. All six ships survived the war and lingered until the 1970s in training and other secondary roles before being scrapped.

Following the October Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War, Soviet industry was not capable of designing large, complex warships by itself and sought foreign assistance. The Ansaldo company provided plans for the contemporary Raimondo Montecuccoli-class cruisers and a design displacing 7,200 tonnes (7,086 long tons) and armed with six 180-millimetre (7.1 in) guns in twin turrets was produced in 1933. The Italians guaranteed that the cruiser could make 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) on trials if the size was kept under the 7200-tonne limit. The designer of the new turret managed to persuade his superiors that he could fit triple turrets to the ship while keeping it within the specified limit, and this design was approved in November 1934 as the Project 26.

...
Wikipedia