Following the October Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War, Soviet industry was not capable of designing large, complex warships by itself and sought foreign assistance.

The Ansaldo company provided plans for the contemporary Raimondo Montecuccoli-class cruisers and a design displacing 7,200 tonnes (7,086 long tons) and armed with six 180-millimetre (7.1 in) guns in twin turrets was produced in 1933.

[5] Kirov and Voroshilov were fitted with a massive tetrapod foremast, but this proved to restrict the view from the conning tower as well as the fields of fire of the 100 mm anti-aircraft guns and greatly increased their silhouette.

It was reduced to a simple pole mast in the later ships and the superstructure enlarged to accommodate the fire control facilities formerly housed in the foremast.

The turrets were very small to fit them into the hull space available and were so cramped that their rate of fire was much lower than designed (only two rounds per minute instead of six).

[9] The Project 26 ships were fitted with the Molniya fire control system for their main guns which included the TsAS-2 mechanical computer and the KDP3-6 director.

Each turret and the director had DM-6 rangefinders which allowed multiple targets to be engaged using a combination of local and central fire control.

The anti-aircraft armament was controlled by the Gorizont-1 system with a SO-26 computer, Gazon vertical gyroscope and a pair of SPN-100 directors on each side of the superstructure.

Six license-built Yarrow-Normand type water-tube boilers powered the turbines with a nominal capacity of 106-tonnes/hour of superheated steam at a pressure of 25 kg/cm2 (2,452 kPa; 356 psi) and a temperature of 325 °C (617 °F).

Endurance figures also varied widely at full load, from 2,140 to 4,220 nautical miles (3,960 to 7,820 km; 2,460 to 4,860 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

[5] The armour scheme formed a raft around the vitals, protected by a waterline belt, deck and traverse bulkheads uniformly 50 mm (2.0 in) in thickness.

It has been judged too thin to withstand a torpedo's detonation, but possibly the far-side bulkhead might survive intact, which would cause a list from asymmetrical flooding.

It has been speculated that "This seam in the protection, representing a small target area, may simply have served to save weight and simplify construction.

Gorky and Molotov mounted Soviet-built ZK-1 catapults of roughly comparable performance, but were destined never to use them for lack of suitable aircraft.

[16] During the Winter War, Kirov, escorted by the destroyers Smetlivyi and Stremitel'nyi, attempted to bombard Finnish coast defense guns at Russarö, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of Hanko.

She fired only 35 rounds before she was damaged by a number of near misses and had to return to the Soviet naval base at Liepāja for repairs.

In May she supported Soviet troops around Kerch and the Taman Peninsula while helping to transfer the 9th Naval Infantry Brigade from Batumi to Sevastopol.

Just after her repairs were completed she assisted Soviet forces landing behind German lines at the so-called "Malaya Zemlya" at the end of January 1943.

She bombarded Axis positions near Feodosiya in early November and was sent to reinforce Sevastopol with elements of the 386th Rifle Division from Poti.

After making a number of bombardment sorties in support of Soviet troops on the Kerch Peninsula, she returned to Poti for more permanent repairs on 20 March.

She was reclassified as a training cruiser on 2 August 1961, regularly visited Poland and East Germany, and was sold for scrap on 22 February 1974.

This was planned much like Kirov's refit, although her displacement was to increase 1,000 tonnes (984 long tons) from torpedo bulges, with consequent penalties to her speed and range.

The Navy reevaluated the scope of the work in 1955, deemed it insufficient to create a fully modern ship, and suspended the refit.

[26] Molotov suffered a fire in the #2 turret handling room on 5 October 1946 which required the magazine to be flooded; 22 sailors were killed and 20 wounded.

Modernized like her half-sister Kirov between 1952 and 29 October 1955, she was renamed Slava on 3 August 1957 after Vyacheslav Molotov fell out of favor with Nikita Khrushchev.

She was reclassified as a training cruiser on 3 August 1961 and deployed to the Mediterranean during 5–30 June 1967 to show Soviet support for Syria during the Six-Day War.

She returned to the Mediterranean between September and December 1970 where she assisted the Kotlin-class destroyer Bravyi after the latter's collision with the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal on 9 November 1970.

[27] Kalinin was placed in reserve on 1 May 1956, and was restored to the Navy List on 1 December 1957 before being disarmed and converted into a floating barracks on 6 February 1960.

She was renamed Petropavlovsk on 3 August 1957 after Lazar Kaganovich was purged from the government after an unsuccessful coup against Nikita Khrushchev that same year.

Her superstructure was badly damaged by a Force 12 typhoon on 19 September 1957 and she was deemed uneconomical to repair and sold for scrap on 6 February 1960.