Minsk (Russian: Минск) was one of six Leningrad-class destroyer leaders built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s, one of the three Project 38 variants.

Completed in 1939, the ship was assigned to the Baltic Fleet and played a minor role in the Winter War against Finland in 1939–1940.

The Leningrads carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 2,100 nautical miles (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

The ship bombarded German positions around Tallinn on 23–27 August, firing 563 shells from her main guns.

That night, the Soviets began evacuating the port, covered by Minsk, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Y.

The explosion flooded three compartments with 600 t (591 long tons) of water and Captain 2nd rank Peter Petunin ordered her to be anchored for the night lest she strike anymore mines; the ship reached Kronstadt the following day.

[11] On 30 August, Minsk was assigned to provide gunfire support to Soviet troops in the Kronstadt/Oranienbaum area together with the battleships Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya and Marat, the heavy cruiser Kirov and the destroyers Steregushchy, Smetlivy, Gordy, Slavny and Surovy and the gunboat Volga.

Minsk was initially hit with three 100 kilograms (220 lb) bombs that knocked out all her power, set her on fire and flooded part of the ship.

[12] She continued to serve with the Baltic Fleet postwar and was reclassified as a destroyer on 12 January 1949 like her surviving sister ships.

Minsk was converted into a training ship of the Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering School in Leningrad on 31 July 1951.