Soviet destroyer Tashkent

Tashkent was the lead ship of her class (Project 20) of destroyer leaders. Because Russian design experience had atrophied in the years since the Russian Revolution of 1917, the ship was built in Italy for the Soviet Navy just before World War II. Three other ships of the class were ordered from Soviet shipyards, but were ultimately cancelled before construction began.

Design and description
Unsatisfied with the 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 heavy cruisers. They requested designs for a high-speed destroyer leader from three Italian shipbuilders and accepted the submission by Odero-Terni-Orlando in September 1935. They would build the lead ship, named Tashkent, in their Livorno shipyard and provide assistance for the Soviets to build others in their own shipyards. Three other ships were ordered, although the only ship to receive a name was Baku, before they were all cancelled due to difficulties with adapting the Italian design to Soviet shipbuilding practices.

Tashkent had an overall length of 139.7 m, a beam of 13.7 m, and a mean draft of 3.7 m. The ship displaced 2893 LT at standard load and 2680 LT at deep load. Her crew numbered 250 officers and sailors. The hull was riveted with a raised forecastle and 15 compartments. The hull strength was not up to requirements in Tashkent and was increased for the Project 48 ships.

The ship had a pair of geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller, designed to produce 110000 shp using steam from a pair of Yarrow boilers. The turbines were housed in two separate compartments with alternating boiler rooms in a unit system layout. The turbines were intended to give Tashkent a maximum speed of 42 kn and she reached 44.2 kn from 116000 shp during her sea trials, although her armament had yet to be fitted. The ship carried enough fuel oil to give her a range of 5030 nmi at 20 kn.

Tashkent's main armament was intended to consisted of six 130 mm B-13 guns in three twin-gun B-31 turrets, one superfiring pair forward of the superstructure and the other mount aft of it. However, the turrets were not ready so three single mounts were used instead. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by six semi-automatic 45 mm 21-K AA guns in single mounts as well as six 12.7 mm DShK machine guns. They carried nine 533 mm torpedo tubes in three rotating triple mounts. The ships could also carry a maximum of either 76 mines and 24 depth charges. Fire control consisted of a single gunnery director on top of the bridge and an Italian-made basic fire-control computer, and a rangefinder aft.

Modifications
The B-31 turrets were still not available in 1941 so the B-2LM turrets that were intended to arm the destroyer leaders and the s were fitted instead. After the Germans invaded Russia in June, the 45 mm guns were replaced by an equal number of automatic 37 mm AA guns and a twin-gun 39-K mount for 76.2 mm 34-K AA guns was added on the stern.