The performance specifications for a Project 48 leader, derived from Project 1 and Project 38, were approved in 1938. The draft and technical designs were approved in 1939. The lead ship, Kiev, was launched in 1940. After the Axis invasion, construction work on Kiev and Yerevan was halted. The hulls were towed to Sevastopol and then to Batumi. The ships were intended to be completed under the revised Project 48K in the post-war period, but they were eventually canceled.