The Chapayev class (Project 68 Чапаев) were a group of cruisers built for the Soviet Navy during and after World War II.

As part of Stalin's 1936 "Big Fleet Programme", many light cruisers were to be built over the next ten years.

On 29 October 1937, the navy changed its requirements to 3 triple 152 mm (6.0 in) guns and redesignated it as Project 68 before being reverted in March 1938.

Weapons and systems development lagged behind its construction, leading to a planned redesign of the first two ships with German weaponry in September 1940 designated Project 68I.

Two ships, Ordzhinikidze and Sverdlov, were scrapped on the slipway after being captured by Germans in Nikolaev during World War II.

Ten more ships were planned to be laid down: Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Avrora, Lazo, and an unnamed fifth in 1941, and Zhdanov, Parkhomenko, Kotovsky, Shchors, and Shcherbakov in 1942–1943.