 The Duma approved construction in May 1912 , before the design was finalised , and allocated 45 @.@ 5 million rubles for each ship . However , the increase in armaments and consequential increase in the size of the ships raised their estimated cost by seven million rubles each , and some money was diverted from the budget for the Svetlana @-@ class cruisers . Orders were placed on 18 September 1912 for a pair of ships each from the New Admiralty Shipyard and the Baltic Works . The first pair was to be ready for trials on 14 July 1916 and the second pair on 14 September 1916 . 
