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Kirov, the lead ship of her class of nuclear-powered missile cruisers, was one of the major and biggest surface warships of the Soviet Navy, though it today serves in the Russian Navy.

Kirov was commissioned on December 30, 1980, and appeared as part of Soviet Northern Fleet for the first time in 1981,

It is similar in displacement to a World War I battleship. Although commissioned as a missile cruiser, Kirov's size and weapons complement have given her the unofficial designation of a battlecruiser throughout much of the world. The appearance of the Kirov class was a significant factor in the U.S. Navy recommissioning the Iowa class. She was named after Sergey Kirov, a Bolshevik hero.