The boat's profile was cleaned up from the earlier P-class and featured a relatively level deck line and more contained sail. The sail was set ahead of midships and was stepped to accommodate the deck gun artillery. The bow was well-pointed and slightly raised as was the stern section. Under the stern was the rudder control straddled by the twin-propeller arrangement.
The completed boats were K1, K2, K3, K21, K22, K23, K51, K52, K53, K54, K55 and K56 and they were launched from December 1936 into 1941, destined for service with the Soviet Northern Fleet. K1, K2, K3, K22 and K23 were sunk during the fighting of World War 2 while K51, K52, K53, K54, K55 and K56 were caught during the siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) and not finished until after the war concluded. K21 survived the war to become a training platform before being preserved. K51, K52, K53, K54, and K55 all survived their wartime exposure and were ultimately decommissioned and scrapped. K56, launched in 1940, was expended during nuclear trials in 1957.
The K-class boats were to have been evolved under the KU-class initiative which were to feature welded hulls. The class was in-the-works as soon as 1941 with some twenty-four boats set to make up the new and improved group but this program was not furthered.
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