Kirov-class cruiser

Kirov in 1941
Class overview
Name	Kirov class
Builders	Ordzhonikidze Shipyard, Leningrad Amur Shipbuilding Shipyard, Komsomolsk-on-Amur Marti South Shipyard, Nikolayev
Operators	Soviet Navy
Preceded by	Admiral Nakhimov class
Succeeded by	Chapayev class
Subclasses	Project 26 Project 26bis Project 26bis2
Built	1935–1944
In service	1938–1970
Completed	6
Retired	6
General characteristics (Project 26)
Type	Cruiser
Displacement	7,890 t (7,765 long tons) (standard) 9,436 t (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	6 Yarrow-Normand water-tube boilers 113,500 shp (84,600 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 geared steam turbines
Speed	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
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 × triple 180 mm (7.1 in) guns 6 × single 100 mm (3.9 in) DP guns 6 × single 45 mm (1.8 in) AA guns 4 × single 12.7 mm (0.50 in) AA machine guns 2 × triple 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes 96–164 mines 50 depth charges
Armour	Waterline belt: 50 mm (2 in) Deck: 50 mm (2 in) each Turrets: 50 mm (2 in) Barbettes: 50 mm (2 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 in training and other secondary roles, with three being scrapped in the early 1960s and the other three a decade later.