Soviet destroyer Shaumyan

A second 76.2 mm gun on the stern was added during her 1928–1930 refit, as was a 37-millimeter (1.5 in) Maxim cannon, and she was equipped to carry 60 M1926 mines. During her 1935 refit, the destroyer received four 12.7-millimeter (0.50 in) DShK machine guns on the forward and aft bridges, replacing the 7.62 mm machine guns, in addition to an AM-3 rangefinder.[2][3] During the 1930s she was also fitted with 42 depth charges and two K-1 paravanes. A pair of depth-charge throwers were added later.[4][5]

Along with the rest of the other ships of the Black Sea Naval Forces, Shaumyan participated in maneuvers with Red Army forces at Odessa involving a practice landing between 21 and 22 September 1927; she was visited by People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Kliment Voroshilov and Chief of the Red Army Naval Forces Directorate Romuald Muklevich after the exercise. The destroyer visited Istanbul, Turkey, between 27 May and 7 June 1928 alongside cruiser Chervona Ukraina and destroyers Petrovsky and Frunze as part of the Black Sea Naval Forces' Separate Destroyer Division. During the voyage they conducted combat training, including exercises with the Batumi Coastal Defense Region.[8]

Shaumyan began a refit at Sevmorzavod on 5 October. After the completion of the refit on 16 July 1930, she cruised to Istanbul (3 to 5 October), Messina, Italy, (7 to 10 October), and Piraeus, Greece, (11 to 14 October) with Chervona Ukraina and her sister Nezamozhnik, practicing maneuvering in minefields and repelling attacks from submarines, destroyers, and torpedo boats.[9] With cruiser Krasny Kavkaz and Petrovsky, the destroyer made another Mediterranean cruise in late 1933, departing Sevastopol on 17 October. The ships arrived in Istanbul on the next day, at Piraeus on 23 October, and made an official visit to Naples, Italy, between 30 October and 2 November, returning to Sevastopol on the night of 7 November.[10] Shaumyan was again refitted at Sevmorzavod in 1935,[3] becoming part of the revived Soviet Black Sea Fleet on 11 January of that year.[4] She tested the new 76 mm anti-aircraft gun (34-K) in May and June of that year. The gun was installed on the new Gnevny-class destroyers but not on Shaumyan due to its weight and the priorities of the Soviet Navy.[11]

She was part of the 1st Destroyer Division of the fleet at Sevastopol by 22 June 1941,[12] when the Germans invaded of the Soviet Union. The destroyer was assigned to cover the evacuation of the Danube Flotilla to Odessa on 17 July and the 14th Rifle Corps from the Chilia branch of the Danube River to Odessa on 18–19 July. Shaumyan and the minesweeper Tshch-27 laid a minefield off the mouth of the Chilia branch on 23 July,[13] with the destroyer laying 50 M1926 mines.[14] She was assigned to a force tasked to support Soviet troops on 9 August and provided gunfire support for a counterattack by the 1st Naval Rifle Regiment four days later. On 14–17 August, Shaumyan helped to escort the incomplete ships being evacuated from the shipyards at Nikolayev. Together with the light cruisers Chervona Ukraina and Komintern, and the destroyers Besposhchadny and Boyky, Shaumyan and her sister Nezamozhnik bombarded Axis positions west of Odessa on 1–2 September.[15] In return, Shaumyan was struck in the navigation bridge by a shell on 1 September, wounding nine crewmen. The following day she arrived at Sevastopol for repairs that were completed by the 27th when the ship returned to Odessa and towed the crippled Besposhchadny to Sevastopol.[14]

On 3–6 October, the ship was one of the escorts for the convoys evacuating the 157th Rifle Division from a bridgehead outside Odessa to Sevastopol. She covered evacuation convoys from Odessa on 8–10 October as well as the final convoy on the night of 15–16 October, towing the damaged transport Gruziya.[14][16] After the evacuation of Odessa, Shaumyan supported the defense of Sevastopol from 29 October when she and Nezamozhnik were assigned to another naval bombardment group, this time with the light cruisers Krasnyi Krym and Chervona Ukraina and the destroyer Bodry. This was not her only task as the ship helped to evacuate cut-off Soviet troops from pockets along the Black Sea coast to Sevastopol from 1 to 9 November. After Besposhchadny was badly damaged during an airstrike, Shaumyan towed her to Poti, Georgia, to be repaired on 17 November.[17]

The destroyer supported the Kerch-Feodosia amphibious operation on 29 December where her mainmast was struck by a shell that killed two men and wounded seven others. Shaumyan briefly ran aground in Novorossiysk harbor on 13 January 1942, but was pulled off with damage later that day. During the first amphibious landing at Sudak on 15–16 January, the ship off-loaded troops and delivered more on 24–25 January. In February and March she escorted convoys and transported troops and supplies to Sevastopol. As opportunity presented, Shaumyan bombarded Axis positions; firing 37 main-gun shells at an airfield near Saky on 19 February and 78 shells at Yalta harbor on 28 February. The ship participated in a diversionary landing near Alushta on the evening of 1 March, where she fired 55 shells from her main guns.[18] On 3 April she ran aground and punctured her hull in the area of Gelendzhik while steaming from Novorossiysk to Poti after being attacked by German aircraft. The destroyer was officially struck from the Navy List on 3 June after she was disarmed as she could not fire from her position; her 102 mm guns formed a coastal defense battery defending the Novorossiysk Naval Base.[4] The half-submerged ship was subsequently destroyed by German aircraft and storms. Postwar, the wreck was almost completely salvaged for scrap.[3]