One of six Leningrad-class destroyer leaders, based on the contre-torpilleur arms race that had come to dominate the Mediterranean naval powers of France and Italy, the 40 knot Minsk and the Baltic Fleet were forced into the Gulf of Finland as Baltic Naval bases fell to a sudden German invasion into Soviet Russia. Minsk survived the war, providing fire support during the siege of Leningrad only to be used as a missile target in 1958.
