The last ship in the class was named Parizhskaya Kommuna (Russian: Парижская Коммуна) which was taken into operation on 17 December 1968.

Project 567 was developed at the Central Design Bureau Chernomorsudoproekt (CDB ChSP) in Nikolayev.

This led to the practice of building merchant ships with extra strength and speed that operated under the flags of the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company (ROPIT), the Voluntary Fleet (Dobroflot), and other shipping companies of the Russian Empire during peacetime.

[4] During the Soviet period shipbuilders built several types of high-speed (for that time) ocean-going cargo ships with dual-purpose-use.

The Leninsky Komsomol class had a deadweight of 16 thousand tons, with six holds and six tweendecks, with cabins for one or two crewmembers each.

This was most likely due to the influence of the KGB, which had a strong interest in building such ships and was led consistently by former Komsomol leaders, such as Alexander Shelepin and Vladimir Semichastny.

Three Leninsky Komsomol class cargo ships were transferred to the Soviet Navy in 1985–1986 for use as large dry-cargo transports: Leninsky Komsomol-class ships were used as a "blockade runners" during "Operation Anadyr", the Soviet effort to break the Cuba blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[6] Leninsky Komsomol-class ships were later used to carry military cargo to Angola, Vietnam and other countries in conflict zones during the Cold War.

Project 567 was developed at the Central Design Bureau Chernomorsudoproekt (CDB ChSP) in Nikolayev.

Outwardly the Leninsky Komsomol-class resembled the US Mariner class, with their cargo derricks and their superstructure divided into three structures (a long forecastle, central accommodation structure, and aftcastle), the engine room in the centre, a sloping bow, and a cruiser stern.

The Leninsky Komsomol-class ships were roughly the same length as the American vessels, but were less broad beamed.

Some variations in the later designs included the placing of the superstructure closer to the stern, and reducing the number of hold compartments to five larger ones.

Engines for all ships in the Leninsky Komsomol series were made at the Kirov Plant in Leningrad and installed at the Kherson and Nikolayev shipyards.

All, with the exception of the last to be built, Parizhskaya Kommuna, were equipped with a "ТС-1" steam turbine turbo gear unit consisting of a double-case turbine and gears fed by two fuel oil boilers with capacity of 25 tons of steam per hour at a pressure of 42 atmospheres and a temperature of 470 °C.

The gearbox lowered this to 100 rpm in the transition to a single four-bladed bronze propeller with a diameter of 6.3 m. The processes managing the boilers and turbine were automated.

The comparatively high speed that the ships could attain would have allowed them to outrun some pursuers, or to escape dangerous areas quickly.

The class were held up as examples of the latest in Soviet shipping construction, and used in promotional advertisements in 1963/1964 for the USSR Maritime Transport, depicting the Leninsky Komsomol-class ships built in the shipyards of the Ukrainian SSR, and the tanker Sofia, which had been built in a Leningrad shipyard.

The Leninsky Komsomol-class ships also received wide coverage in newspaper and magazine articles.

One depicted a Leninsky Komsomol-class ship, described as the Metallurg Kurako, surrounded by warships and patrol aircraft of the US Navy.