With 11 classes and hundreds of units built, and with roles varying from nuclear strikes on NATO shipping to anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare, the destroyers of the Soviet Union were among the most numerous and important assets to the surface fleet. After Soviet shipbuilding overcame its severe postwar problems, the traditional destroyers of the early Cold War were replaced over the decades by increasingly capable guided-missile ships. However unlike their NATO counterparts, the details of these warships remain practically unknown in the West.
