The Leninets or L-class were the second class of submarines to be built for the Soviet Navy

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

. They were minelaying submarines and were based on the British L-class submarine

British L class submarine

The British L class submarine were originally planned under the emergency war programme as an improved version of the British E class submarine. The scale of change allowed the L class to become a separate class....

, HMS L55

HMS L55

HMS L55 was a British L class submarine built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, Clyde. She was laid down on 21 September 1917 and was commissioned on 19 December 1918.- British service :...

, which was sunk during the British intervention in the Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

. Some experience from the previous Dekabrist-class submarine

Dekabrist class submarine

The Dekabrist-class were the first class of submarines built for the Soviet Navy after the October Revolution. They were authorized in the Soviet Naval Shipbuilding Program of 1926....

s was also utilised. Thse boats were of the saddle tank type and mines were carried in two stern galleries as pioneered on the pre-war Krab

Russian submarine Krab

The Krab was a submarine built for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was designed by Mikhail Petrovich Nalyotov as the world's first submarine minelayer, although due to construction delays the German UC submarines entered service earlier. The mines were stowed in two horizontal galleries exiting...

, the world's first minelaying submarine. These boats were considered successful by the Soviets and 25 were built in 4 groups between 1931 and 1941. Groups 3 and 4 had more powerful engines and higher speed.

Ships

• Group 1: 6 ships built (L1 to L6), all launched in 1931. 3 Baltic Fleet
  Baltic Fleet
  The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...
  
  , 3 Black Sea Fleet
  Black Sea Fleet
  The Black Sea Fleet is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. It is based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov....
  
  , including Soviet submarine L-3
  Soviet submarine L-3
  The World War II Soviet submarine L-3 belonged to the L-class or Leninets class of minelayer submarines. It had been named Bolshevik and later Frunzenets, before it was decided that submarines should stop having names and carry numbers instead....
  
  .

Number	Name	Meaning	Fleet	Launched	Fate
L1	Leninets (Ленинец)	Follower of Lenin	Baltic	28 February 1931	Sunk by German Artillery October 1941, salvaged, scrapped 1945
L2	Stalinets (Сталинец)	Follower of Stalin	Baltic	21 May 1931	Sunk by Mine 15 November 1941
L3 Soviet submarine L-3 The World War II Soviet submarine L-3 belonged to the L-class or Leninets class of minelayer submarines. It had been named Bolshevik and later Frunzenets, before it was decided that submarines should stop having names and carry numbers instead....	Frunzenets (Фрунзенец)	Follower of 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...	Baltic	8 August 1931	Decommissioned 15 February 1971, conning tower preserved as a memorial
L4	Garibaldets (Гарибальдиец)	Follower of Garibaldi	Black Sea	31 August 1931	Decommissioned 17 February 1956
L5	Chartist (Чартист)	An adherent of Chartism Chartism Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...	Black Sea	5 June 1932	25 December 1955
L6	Carbonari (Карбонарий)	Carbonari Carbonari The Carbonari were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in Spain, France, Portugal and possibly Russia. Although their goals often had a patriotic and liberal focus, they lacked a...	Black Sea	3 November 1932	Sunk 18 April 1944 by German sub-chaser UJ 104 near Constanza

• Group 2 : 6 ships built (L7 to L 12), launched between 1935 and 1936. All built for the Pacific Fleet by plant 202 "Dalzavod" Vladivostok and plant 199 Komsomolsk-na-Amure.

Number	Name	Meaning	Fleet	Launched	Fate
L7	Voroshilovets	Follower of Kliment Voroshilov Kliment Voroshilov Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...	Pacific	15 May 1935	sunk 1941-42??
L8	Dzerzhinets	Follower of Dzerzhinski	Pacific	10 September 1935	Decommissioned 1950s
L9	Kirovets	Follower of Kirov Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov , born Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov, was a prominent early Bolshevik leader in the Soviet Union. Kirov rose through the Communist Party ranks to become head of the Party organization in Leningrad...	Pacific	25 August 1935	Decommissioned 1950s
L10	Menzhinets	Follower of Menzhinski Vyacheslav Menzhinsky Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky was a Polish-Russian revolutionary, a Soviet statesman and Party official who served as chairman of the OGPU from 1926 to 1934...	Pacific	18 December 1936	Decommissioned 1950s
L11	Sverdlovets	Follower of Sverdlov Yakov Sverdlov Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov ; known under pseudonyms "Andrei", "Mikhalych", "Max", "Smirnov", "Permyakov" — 16 March 1919) was a Bolshevik party leader and an official of the Russian Soviet Republic.-Early life:...	Pacific	4 December 1936	Decommissioned 1950s
L12	Molotovets	Follower of Molotov	Pacific	7 November 1936	Decommissioned 1950s

• Group 3 : 7 ships built (L13 to L19) launched 1937 to 1938. All for the Pacific Fleet. New project, hull based at Srednyaya class, 18 mines.

Ship	Launched	Fate
L13		Decommissioned 1950s
L14		Decommissioned 1950s
L15		Transferred to the Northern Fleet via the Panama Canal Panama Canal The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...  in late 1942, decommissioned 1950s
L16		Torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-25 Japanese submarine I-25 was a B1-Type submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy that served in World War II, took part in the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and carried out the only aerial bombing on the continental United States during wartime; during the so-called Lookout Air Raid; and the Bombardment of Fort Stevens, both...  on 11 October 1942, near the coast of Oregon Oregon Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...  while being transferred to the Soviet Northern Fleet
L17		Decommissioned 1950s
L18		Decommissioned 1950s
L19		Sunk in 1945

• Group 4 : 6 ships built (L20 to L25) launched 1940 to 1941. 3 Baltic Fleet, 3 Black Sea Fleet. This group added stern torpedo tubes and new, more powerful diesel engines.

Ship	Fleet	Launched	Fate
L20	Baltic	14 April 1940	Decommissioned 1950s
L21	Baltic	17 July 1940	Decommissioned 1950s
L22	Baltic	23 September 1939	Transferred to Northern Fleet 1941, Decommissioned 1950s
L23	Black Sea	29 April 1940	Sunk 17 January 1944 by German sub-chaser UJ106
L24	Black Sea	17 December 1940	Sunk 24 December 1942 by mines off the Bulgarian coast, wreck located by divers in 1991
L25	Black Sea	26 February 1941	Unfinished. Sunk while being towed from Tuapse Tuapse Tuapse is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. It serves as the administrative center of Tuapsinsky District, although administratively it is separate from it...  to Sevastopol Sevastopol Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa.... in December 1944