On prototype Pr.26 (Kirov class) cruiser designs

[GianmarcoBianchi]

Project 26, or Kirov class, were influenced by Italian cruisers. In fact, the final design took Raimondo Monteccucoli class as a reference, and cruiser Kirov's machine facilities were made in Italy (Voroshilov's were domestic).
An early project in about 1933 showed a cruiser with three twin turrets of 180mm guns, designed with Italian help. Such a cruiser, in public culture, was renamed Mikoyan in WoWs as tier V cruiser. It looks like sewing early stage of Trento (tripod mast), Condottieri cruisers (hull), and Russia Empire dreadnoughts (bridge platforms) together.
On such cruisers for Kirov class cruisers' prototype designs and anything about that, is there any useful info?

 

[GianmarcoBianchi]

Said to be 7200t and 37 knots. Designed by Ansaldo.

 

[Tzoli]

I know 2 Kirov preliminaries:
Design 1:
6.000tons 2x2 180mm, 4x1 100mm, 4x1 45mm, 4x1 12,7mm, 2x3 533mm Torpedoes, 100 Mines, 4x Aircraft, Armour unknown or unarmoured, Something like a Soviet Gotland

Design 2:
6.500tons 3x2 180mm, 6x1 100mm, 6x1 45mm, 4x1 12,7mm, 2x3 533mm Torpedoes, 100 Mines 2x Aircraft, 50mm Belt and Deck Armour, a sort of small Kirov

 

[00-PureEvil-00]

AFAIK the history of Project 26 goes somewhat like this:

First there was an attempt to design the new cruiser by themselves. It produced the two designs described by Tzoli above; they were designed by the Shipbuilding Section of the Scientific and Technical Committee, under lead designer Yu. F. Shimansky. They presumably didn't have any project number assigned to them.
The only known drawings of (and, to be fair, the only info on) those designs come from Andrey Sokolov (source in Russian):


According to WoWS, there was also a proposed alternative with eight 152mm guns, represented in WoWS as Kotovsky. How far it went is unknown.

Later the decision was made to request Italian assistance; from that, the Montecuccoli-based design was born. Initially is was planned to arm the cruiser with six 180mm guns in three twin turrets — this is what WoWS tried to represent with their Mikoyan. Drawing source (in Russian):


And then they looked at it and went, "Hey, can we replace the twin turrets with triples? Oh yes, we can." And so the Kirov-class as we know it was born.

 

[Hardrada1955]

 

[Tzoli]

Official plans of the 3x2 180mm version?

 

[Tzoli]

From Warship International, Vol. 45, No. 4 (2008), pp. 298-316:
Cruisers of the Soviet Navy: Part II: Project 26 and Project 26bis—the "Kirov" Class
Author(s): Christopher C. Wright