Because of their protracted construction periods, the boats languished behind contemporaries when they were introduced and were soon found to lack the power and hull strength required for any heavy-duty military work. They were additionally slow to dive and fared poorly in open-water, particularly in rough sea states where the boat could be violently tossed about. As such, the types were not a success by the time they entered service in the immediate pre-war period and were soon assigned to second-line roles because of their deficiencies.
The four boats of the P-class were Pravda (P1, the lead ship of the class), Zvezda (P2) and Iskra (P3). P1 and P3 were both launched in 1934 with P2 following in 1935. P1 was the only one of the class to be sunk, this off the coast of Finland in September of 1941. P3 managed a career into 1952 and P2 outdid them all by lasting until 1956. Both P2 and P3 had their sails completely reworked at a later time to better reflect the improvements of the succeeding K-class submarines - the largest boats produced by the Soviets during the World War 2 period. Twelve of this group were constructed.
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