At the end of the 1930s, the program for the construction of the "Large Sea and Ocean Fleet" was created, and the creation of Soviet battleships designed to carry out combat operations during an enemy attack began. One of the very first models of these powerful ships was named “Soviet Union”.
Then the battleship "Soviet Union" was considered as the main force of the Navy. Thanks to industrialization and technological progress, by the beginning of 1937, the preparation of Project No. 23, a battleship for the Pacific Fleet, was completed. However, further development and the planned laying of the first ships in Leningrad did not take place at that moment.
The period of construction of such a powerful machine as the battleship "Soviet Union" coincided with the difficult years of repression. Almost the entire design team responsible for the project was arrested: a group led by B. Chilikin, the head of the design bureau V. Brzezinsky, V. Rimsky-Korsakov responsible for the project, and the developer of ship power plants A. Speransky. They were replaced by other constructors.
The final project "Battleship "Soviet Union"" instead of the planned date of October 15, 1937 was approved only in the summer of 1939. According to the plan, the cost of the first four ships at that moment cost 1.2 billion rubles.
When choosing weapons for battleships of the "Soviet Union" type, different options were considered. It was originally planned that the warships of Project No. 23 would be the largest and most powerful in the world. The project provided for a total displacement of the ship up to 65 thousand tons, a length of 269.4 meters with a width of 38.9 meters, a draft of 10.4 meters. The presence of powerful artillery weapons, consisting of 9 guns of 406 mm caliber, 12 - 152 mm caliber, 8 - 100 mm caliber. Small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery was represented by artillery submachine guns (anti-aircraft guns) of 37 mm caliber (40 pieces) and machine guns of 12.7 mm caliber, as well as catapults and KOR-1 seaplanes.
A special place was given to the armor of the ship. Armor protection was a complex structure of armor plates of different thicknesses. Attention was paid to the quality of their connection. Various options were offered: in a checkerboard pattern, on rivets in 3 rows, using welding, on dowels.
The power plant included six boilers with a powerful capacity, each with 173 t/h of steam. The electric power system consists of four turbo generators and four diesel generators with a total capacity of 7800 kW.
According to the original plan, due to high technical characteristics, as well as well-thought-out mine protection and armor, battleshipsProject No. 23 was supposed to outperform all other battleships of World War II. From the moment of laying the foundation, work on their construction has been carried out at an intensive pace, experiments and tests have been carried out.
The beginning of the war was the end for further development of the "Battleship "Soviet Union"" project. During the war years, the ships were partially dismantled, and at the end of the war, further completions were deemed inappropriate. All work was suspended in accordance with the order of the State Defense Committee. All ships available at that time were dismantled.
