Admiral Lazarev (Адмирал Лазарев) is the second Kirov class battlecruiser

Kirov class battlecruiser

The Kirov-class battlecruiser is a class of nuclear-powered military ships of the Russian Navy, the largest and heaviest surface combatant warships currently in active operation in the world. The Russian designation is heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser...

. In fact, she is not a battlecruiser

Battlecruiser

Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...

, but a heavy missile cruiser. However, her size has given her the unofficial designation of a battlecruiser in the mass media of many countries. Until 1992 she was named Frunze (Фрунзе) after Bolshevik

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

 leader Mikhail Frunze

Mikhail Frunze

Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze was a Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.-Life and Political Activity:Frunze was born in Bishkek, then a small Imperial Russian garrison town in the Kyrgyz part of Turkestan, to a Moldovan medical practitioner and his Russian wife...

; at that time she was renamed after Russian admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev

Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev

Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev was a Russian fleet commander and explorer who discovered Antarctica.-Education and early career:Lazarev was born in Vladimir, a scion of the old Russian nobility from the Vladimir province. In 1800, he enrolled in Russia's Naval College. Three years later he...

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She was laid down on July 27, 1978 at Baltiysky Naval Shipyard

Baltic Shipyard

The Baltic Shipyard is one of the oldest shipyards in Russia. It is located in Saint Petersburg in the south-western part of the Vasilievsky Island. It is one of the three shipyards active in Saint Petersburg...

, Leningrad, launched on May 26, 1981, and commissioned on October 31, 1984. In December 1984 she joined the Soviet Navy's Pacific Fleet. The following summer she visited Luanda

Luanda

Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...

, Aden

Aden

Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...

, and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

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Differences from lead ship

Admiral Lazarev was constructed differently from the lead ship of the class. On the forward part of the ship, the twin SS-N-14 ASW missile launcher was replaced with 8 octuple SA-N-9 surface to air missile vertical launchers. On the aft part, a single twin AK-130 130mm gun, similar to the guns used on Slava and Sovremennyy, was used instead of two 100mm guns. Near the flight deck, the 30mm CIWS cannons were moved to the aft superstructure and replaced with 8 octuple SA-N-9 vertical launchers. There were also some differences in the sensors, ESM/ECM suite and communication systems.

Fate

In 1999 the cruiser was taken out of service and prepared for scrapping as no money was available for its overhaul. In 2004-2005 the cruiser's nuclear fuel was unloaded.
As of 2009 it was reported that the ship is moored near Vladivostok, in conservation status. According to recent statements from the Russian Navy, it will be overhauled, extensively modernised and returned to active service, provided that the necessary funds are found.