Svetlana-class cruiser
Krasnyi Krym at anchor
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Svetlana class |
| Operators: |
 Soviet Navy
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| Preceded by: | Muraviev Amurski class |
| Succeeded by: | Admiral Nakhimov class |
| Cost: | 8,300,000 rubles |
| Built: | 1913–28 |
| In commission: | 1928–58 |
| Planned: | 4 |
| Completed: | 3 (1 completed as a cruiser) |
| Cancelled: | 1 |
| Lost: | 1 |
| Scrapped: | 2 |
| General characteristics (as designed) | |
| Type: | Light cruiser |
| Displacement: | 6,860 t (6,750 long tons) (standard) |
| Length: | 158.4 m (519 ft 8 in) |
| Beam: | 15.3 m (50 ft 2 in) |
| Draught: | 5.56 m (18 ft 3 in) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: | 4 × shafts, 4 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed: | 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph) |
| Complement: | 630 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The Svetlana-class cruiser was the first class of light cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy (IRN) during the 1910s. Construction was interrupted by World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Only Svetlana of the quartet was completed by the Soviet Union as a cruiser, two were converted to oil tankers, and the remaining ship was scrapped without being completed.
Svetlana, now renamed Profintern, became fully operational in 1928 and was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet the following year. The ship was renamed Krasnyi Krim in 1939 and supported Soviet troops during the Black Sea Campaigns during World War II. After the war, she became a training ship until the ship was decommissioned in 1958 and broken up two years later.
The State Duma had earlier approved construction of modern dreadnought battleships, but the IRN lacked modern cruisers and destroyers. Several years after the first Gangut-class battleships were ordered, the navy finally gained approval for four light cruisers as part of the 1912–1916 shipbuilding program to scout for the capital ships and to lead destroyer flotillas. Design work for the ships had begun as back as 1907, but it took the IRN several iterations between alternating specifications and designs to decide what was feasible. In early 1912 it conducted a design contest for a 4,100–5,100-metric-ton (4,000–5,000-long-ton) ship armed with a dozen 55-caliber 130-millimeter (5.1 in) Pattern 1913 guns, capable of a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), and protected by some side armor. Other important requirements were a strong resemblance to the dreadnoughts under construction and the ability to lay mines. None of the submissions were entirely satisfactory and the shipyards were asked for new, larger, designs. The navy combined the submissions from the Russo-Baltic and Putilov Shipyards for a 6,700-metric-ton (6,600-long-ton) design in November. In February 1913, the IRN needed to divert some money from the cruisers to pay for the Borodino-class battlecruisers and the shipyards agreed to reduce the price from 9,660,000 rubles, excluding guns and armor, to 8,300,000 rubles in exchange for reducing the speed to 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph); the navy then ordered two ships from each yard on 13 February. Late changes to the design, including the addition of Frahm anti-roll tanks and provision for a seaplane, added several hundred extra tons to the displacement.
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