The Svetlana-class cruiser was the first and only class of light cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy. Eight were laid down as part of the 1912–16 shipbuilding program. They were intended to act as scouts for Gangut and Imperatritsa Maria-class dreadnoughts and to lead destroyer flotillas. Construction was interrupted by World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Three ships were completed by the Soviet Union as cruisers, two were converted to oil tankers, and the remaining three were scrapped.