Sverdlov-class cruiser Mikhail Kutuzov
An item referred to the Swedish newspaper Sydvenska Dagbladet Smallposten published at Malö, Sweden reported that German experts were appointed to build heavy cruisers for the Soviet Union. It was a new design of the so-called pocket battleship type especially to act as merchant raider being faster as their American and British opponents. Another newspaper the Daily May stated that Baltic and White Sea shipyards were now building six of this new type and of which some were to participate in the coming summer manoeuvres. Under the Soviet naval program was each year minimum 2-10.000 cruisers to be built on base of Italian designs. Their maximum designed speed was 37 knots although their range was just limited. The armament consisted of 12-7” guns.(1)
Note
1. The Sverdlov-class had a main armament of 4x3-15,2cm/6”guns, a speed of 32,5 knots and a displacement of 16.000 (standard)-17.299 (full load) tons? Project 68bis.
Source
The report was published on www.archive.org, document number CIA-RDP80-00809A000700010602-0
