Russian destroyer leader Minsk 1934-1958

Leningrad-class

Laid down by Yard 190 Zhdanov, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia with yard number 471 on 5 October 1934, launched on 6 November 1935, commissioned on 15 February 1939, sunk in the harbour of Kronstadt, Russia on 23 September 1942, salvaged, training ship since July 1951, training hulk since April 1953 and finally sunk when used as a target for missiles in 1958. Less likely is a torpedo attack by the Russian submarine Shch-206 or combined gunfire from the Romanian destroyer Regina Maria and the German coast defence battery Tirpitz. Similar to their half sisters (Project 1) although with a larger displacement of 2.390 (standard)-2.720 (full load) tons.

Since 1925 discussions were going on to develop a large destroyer with a maximum displacement of 4.000 tons. This progress resulted in designing the Leningrad-class of destroyer leaders. The so-called Scientific-Technical Committee made between May 1929 and February 1930 a rough design. The final design which was drawn by section 1 of the Central Bureau Design mostly by P.O. Trakhtenberg. Consisting of subclass project 1 consisting of the Leningrad, Moskva, Kharkov and subclass Project 38 consisting of the Minsk, Baku and Tbilisi, succeeded by the Tahskent-class and comparable with the French contre torpilleurs of the same era. Project 38 was to improve the design faults and which work was done under supervision of V.A. Nikitin. The building of the Project 1 destroyers was authorized under the First Five-Year Plan with Project 38 under the Second-Five Year Plan.

418.4 x 38.5 x 13.4 feet. The machinery consisted of 3 shaft geared turbines and 3 water tube triangle  boilers supplying 66.000 shp allowing a maximum speed of 40 (design)-43,57 (trials) knots and with a speed of 20 knots was the range 2.100 nautical miles. Crew numbered 250-311 (in times of war). The armament consisted of 5x1-13cm/5.1” B-13 guns, 2x1-7,62cm/0.30” 34-K anti aircraft guns, 2x1-4,5cm/1.8” 21-K anti aircraft guns, 3x4-53,3cm/21” torpedo tubes, 68-116 mines and 52 depth charges.