The Frunze was a Schastlivy-class destroyer, a subclass of Novik-class destroyers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1910s. Originally she was named Bystry and was renamed Frunze in 1925. She was laid down on 16 October 1913 and commissioned on 18 April 1915. During WWI, she shelled the Turkish and Romanian coasts as well as performing minelaying. On 18 October she sank the Turkish destroyer Hamidabad and two steamboats, and damaged three minesweepers. In May 1918, Frunze was captured by advancing German forces while undergoing repairs at Sevastopol. She was given to the British at the end of WWI, and was scuttled in 1919 to avoid capture during the Russian Civil War.

She was refloated in 1922, and underwent repairs and a refit between 1923 and 1927, during which she received a fourth 102 mm cannon and a 76 mm Lender AA gun, as well as several machine guns. Her five twin 457 mm torpedo launchers were removed and replaced with three triple 457 mm launchers. As a result of the refit, her displacement increased to 1,540 tons and her crew complement rose to 133 men. Between 1936 and 1940, she underwent another refit and repairs in Sevastopol, during which her anti-aircraft weaponry was strengthened by a single 76 mm gun, two 45 mm 21-K cannons, and two DShK machine guns. On 22 August 1941, Frunze, the destroyer Dzerzhinsky and the light cruiser Krasny Krym arrived at Odessa in order to support the defenders of the city with naval gunfire. On 21 September 1941 Frunze left Sevastopol, bound for Odessa again, when she came under attack by nine Ju 87 dive-bombers. She was hit by five bombs and sank at a depth of 6 m. Fifty crewmen lost their lives during the attack.

Frunze was introduced in Update 1.79 "Project X" when the Soviet fleet was implemented into the game. As a WWI Imperial Russian destroyer with slight Soviet modernisation, the Frunze's performance leaves much to be desired. The ship suffers from legacy design limitations that reduce her effectiveness, especially her poor protection, though this is offset by decent accuracy and great agility. As a result, the Frunze primarily excels at providing fire support, capable of dealing significant damage to the enemy fleet if left unchecked.