Soviet destroyer Baku

Unknown Leningrad-class destroyer in Leningrad, June 1944
History
Soviet Union
Name	Baku
Namesake	Baku
Ordered	2nd Five-Year Plan
Builder	Shipyard No. 199, Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Yard number	267
Laid down	10 March 1936 as Kiev
Launched	25 July 1938
Decommissioned	18 April 1958
In service	27 December 1939
Renamed	Ordzhonikidze, 25 July 1938 Sergo Ordzhonikidze, 27 December 1939 Baku, 25 September 1940
Reclassified	As experimental ship, 17 February 1956 As target ship, 18 April 1958 As accommodation ship, 2 June 1959
Stricken	30 July 1963
Honours and awards	Order of the Red Banner, 6 March 1945
Fate	Scrapped, 1964
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Leningrad-class destroyer leader
Displacement	2,350 long tons (2,390 t) (standard) 2,680 long tons (2,720 t) (full load)
Length	127.5 m (418 ft 4 in) (o/a)
Beam	11.7 m (38 ft 5 in)
Draft	4.06 m (13 ft 4 in)
Installed power	3 Three-drum boilers 66,000 shp (49,000 kW)
Propulsion	3 shafts; 3 geared steam turbines
Speed	40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph)
Range	2,100 nmi (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	250 (311 wartime)
Sensors and processing systems	Arktur hydrophones
Armament	5 × single 130 mm (5.1 in) guns 2 × single 76.2 mm (3 in) AA guns 2 × single 45 mm (1.8 in) AA guns 2 × quadruple 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes 68–115 mines 52 depth charges

Baku (Russian: Баку) was one of six Leningrad-class destroyer leaders built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s, one of the three Project 38 variants. Completed in late 1939, the ship was assigned to the Pacific Fleet. About a year after the German invasion of Russia in June 1941, she was ordered to join the Northern Fleet, sailing through the Arctic Ocean. Together with several other destroyers, Baku left the Soviet Far East in July 1942 and arrived off Murmansk three months later where she began escorting convoys, mostly in the White and Barents Seas. The ship was badly damaged in a storm that sank another Soviet destroyer in November and was under repair for several months. Baku spent most of the rest of the war on convoy escort duties, although she did bombard several German-occupied towns during the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive of October 1944. The ship and her crew were awarded the Order of the Red Banner in early 1945 for their performance during the war.

After the war, she was refitted and rejoined the Northern Fleet in 1946. For the next several years she exercised during the warm months and was put in reserve during winter. The following year she starred in a movie about a fictional destroyer during the war. Baku began a lengthy overhaul in 1948 that lasted until 1954. Upon its completion she was used for experimental work and was formally reclassified as an experimental ship two years later. Baku was converted into a target ship in 1958, but was hulked as a depot ship a few weeks later. She became an accommodation ship in 1959 and was finally struck from the Navy List in 1963 and scrapped the following year.