The Tashkent class (officially known as Project 20) consisted of a single destroyer leader, built in Italy for the Soviet Navy just before World War II.

Completed in 1939, Tashkent participated in the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol in 1941–1942, during which she ferried reinforcements and supplies into those cities, evacuated wounded and refugees, and provided naval gunfire support for Soviet troops.

Unsatisfied with the Leningrad-class destroyer leader, the Soviets decided that they needed foreign design assistance around 1934–1935.

The French were not willing to share ship plans so the Soviets turned to Italy, based on their earlier experience with the Italians during the preliminary design work for the Kirov-class cruisers.

They requested designs for a high-speed destroyer leader from three Italian shipbuilders and accepted the submission by Odero-Terni-Orlando (OTO) in September 1935.

[6] Tashkent's main armament was intended to consist of six 50-caliber 130-millimeter (5.1 in) B-13 guns in three twin-gun B-2LM turrets, one superfiring pair forward of the superstructure and the other mount aft of it.

[7] The B-13 gun fired a 33.4-kilogram (74 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 870 m/s (2,900 ft/s), which gave them a range of 25,597 meters (27,993 yd).

After repairs were completed in November, the ship ferried reinforcements and supplies, evacuated wounded and refugees, and bombarded Axis positions during the Siege of Sevastopol in 1941–1942.

Tashkent was crippled by Axis bombers on a return voyage to Novorossiysk in late June and was sunk a few days later during an air strike on the harbor there.