The Sverdlov class cruisers, Soviet designation Project 68bis, were the last conventional cruisers built for the Soviet Navy. They were based on Italian pre second world war concepts and designs, but with deployment on the North Atlantic and Arctic sea routes as a potential role and represent an intelligent approach with a modest armament of conventional 6 inch triple turrets on a large seaworthy hull able to run fast in rough water and fight her armament in a seaway. The expectation was that they would be accompanied by battlecruisers that were never completed or approved. By the mid 1950s the development of USN and RN jet strike aircraft meant gun cruisers increasingly could only be used for gunfire support and as command ships.Only 14 Sverdlovs were completed before Nikita Khrushchev ca