Destroyer flotilla leader Tashkent was designed and built at the Odero-Terni-Orlando shipyard in Italy. Three Soviet-made 130 mm B-2L (Model 1936) twin-gun turrets were supposed to be placed on the ship; however, at the design stage, the B-2L and B-2M projects were merged into one—B-2LM—which caused delays during testing. When she was commissioned into the navy in October 1939, three single-gun 130 mm B-13 gun mounts were placed on the ship as temporary weapons. It was with that artillery on board that the ship met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Tashkent received her standard weaponry of three B-2LM mounts by July 1941.