''Mikhail Kutuzov'' (russian: Михаил Кутузов) is a

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

project no. 68-bis (designated the by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

) of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

and later the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet.

Development and design

The ''Sverdlov''-class cruisers, Soviet designation Project 68bis, were the last conventional gun cruisers built for the Soviet Navy. They were built in the 1950s and were based on Soviet, German, and Italian designs and concepts developed prior to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. They were modified to improve their sea keeping capabilities, allowing them to run at high speed in the rough waters of the North Atlantic. The basic hull was more modern and had better armor protection than the vast majority of the post Second World War gun cruiser designs built and deployed by peer nations. They also carried an extensive suite of modern

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

equipment and anti-aircraft artillery. The Soviets originally planned to build 40 ships in the class, which would be supported by the s and

aircraft carriers An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a n ...

. The ''Sverdlov'' class displaced 13,600 tons standard and 16,640 tons at full load. They were

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

and long at the waterline. They had a beam of and draught of and typically had a complement of 1,250. The hull was a completely welded new design and the ships had a double bottom for over 75% of their length. The ship also had twenty-three watertight bulkheads. The ''Sverdlov''s had six boilers providing steam to two shaft geared

steam turbines A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

generating . This gave the ships a maximum speed of . The cruisers had a range of at .Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 378 ''Sverdlov''-class cruisers main armament included twelve /57 cal B-38 guns mounted in four triple Mk5-bis turrets. They also had twelve /56 cal Model 1934 guns in six twin SM-5-1 mounts. For anti-aircraft weaponry, the cruisers had thirty-two anti-aircraft guns in sixteen twin mounts and were also equipped with ten

torpedo tubes A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed abo ...

in two mountings of five each. In 1986, ''Mikhail Kutuzov'' was the fourth and last of the ''Sverdlov''-class to be modernized to the Project 68A standard, replacing the torpedo tubes and four of the 37 mm twin mounts with eight AK-230 CIWS mounts. The ''Sverdlov''s had

belt armor Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to ...

and had a armored deck. The turrets were shielded by armor and the conning tower, by armor. The cruisers' ultimate radar suite included one 'Big Net' or 'Top Trough' air search radar, one 'High Sieve' or 'Low Sieve' air search radar, one 'Knife Rest' air search radar and one 'Slim Net' air search radar. For navigational radar they had one 'Don-2' or 'Neptune' model. For fire control purposes the ships were equipped with two 'Sun Visor' radars, two 'Top Bow' 152 mm gun radars and eight 'Egg Cup' gun radars. For electronic countermeasures the ships were equipped with two 'Watch Dog' ECM systems.

Construction and career

She was laid down at the

Black Sea Shipyard The Black Sea Shipyard ( uk, Чорноморський суднобудівний завод; russian: Черноморский судостроительный завод) is a shipbuilding facility in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on the southern tip of ...

in Nikolayev on 23 February 1951 and commissioned on 30 December 1954. ''Mikhail Kutuzov'' joined the Black Sea Fleet after commissioning and sea trials, on 31 January 1955. On 28 July 2002, ''Mikhail Kutuzov'' was opened to the public as a museum ship in Novorossiysk. On 1 October 2012, she was made a branch of the

Central Naval Museum Central Naval Museum (russian: Центральный военно-морской музей) is a naval museum in St Petersburg, Russia. It is one of the first museums in Russia and one of the world’s largest naval museums, with a large collect ...

Pennant numbers

References

External links

1952 ships Sverdlov-class cruisers Ships built in the Soviet Union Museum ships in Russia Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard Cold War cruisers of the Soviet Union {{USSR-mil-ship-stub