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This is a timeline written in rather general fashion, so maybe I even complete this

Part I: Early beginnings


For long it was not known at which point did Josef Stalin change his mind about naval warfare. Prewar Soviet construction plans had shunned carriers in favour of big gun combatants, such as Sovietski Sojuz -class battleships. However, new found evidence on Soviet archives point out that the Soviet dictator became a carrier convert after seeing the intelligence reports on Battle of the Leyte Gulf and fate of battleship Yamato in hands of the US Navy's powerful carrier force.

First experimental Soviet carrier was former cruiser Kirov, which was converted in fairly similar way to USS Independence -class CVL's, having fairly similar sized hull. It embarked an air wing of thirty propellor driven aircraft, modified La-9's and Il-10's, which were first flown off the carrier on 8 May 1948. It's construction was helped by close studies of never operational German carrier Graf Zeppelin.

However, while carrier Kirov was closely studied by Western naval experts a new generation of Soviet carriers was being prepared along with a new generation of carrier aircraft.

The main cause to construct the carriers was, from Soviet viewpoint, defensive. Only carriers would extend the reach of Soviet air defenses in Pacific, Northern Atlantic and Mediterranean to ensure interception of American land- and carrier based atomic bombers. Their air wing would also help operations of Soviet submarine force whether deployed for defense of the Motherland or in a campaign against Western seaborne commerce.

The main offensive arm of the naval aviation was not to be based on carrier-borne aircraft but upon cruise missiles upon development to be launched from land-based bombers, ships and submarines. This different role of Soviet carriers as "air defence cruisers", as they were termed to pass the Dardanelles, was sometimes ridiculed by Western press and Western carrier aviators but made sense in some way as Soviet Navy knew their carrier air wings would be always outnumbered, they could not hope to overwhelm the US and British carrier air groups by carrier air groups alone.

To fulfill these roles it was decided to construct two types of carriers, a light model Project 71 and larger type utilizing hull design of Kronstadt-class BC, project Kostromitinova. Project 71 was designed to hold a total complement of 45 aircraft while Kostromitinova was to have an air wing of about 100 aircrafts. The Project 71 has often been criticized due to it's small size but in retrospect construction of smaller carriers at first enabled acquisition of initial operational capability fairly early on and gave valuable lessons to be incorporated into larger carriers.

The Soviet naval construction program was slated to include four Kostromitinova (or Stalingrad) -class heavy carriers and twelve Project 71 -class (to be known as Sverdlov -class) light carriers. Fourteen Project 68bis cruisers were to be completed as anti-aircraft escorts for these new ships utilizing 24 130mm dual-purpose guns in triple turrets. (Note: Historically Soviet program included 3 Stalingrads and 30 Sverdlovs)


Part II: The Soviet naval build-up of Stalin era

The sole Soviet experimental carrier did not raise significant interest in the West outside naval circles during late 1940's. This all changed when the Korean War began and Western intelligence reporting Soviet build-up of ten CVB's and 50 CVL's along with some 1000 submarines found audience from US and UK politicians. Despite Korean conflict the US and British armies found themselves distant third in interservice budget battles. Effects of new construction would take time, however.

Before end of the Stalin era this anticipated build-up was nowhere but complete. Four large carriers were still under lengthy period of preconstruction and out of the twelve light carriers six were completed alongside six anti-aircraft cruisers being in advanced state of building. Training programs for carrier aviators were still haphazard as the only carrier in existence, Kirov, was being used for experimental work. Naval version of MiG-15 fighter was in production while Tu-91 slated for reconnaissance and attack duties was still in drawing board.

It would take years before Soviet carrier force could be considered operational. However, significant elements of the force were being prepared and even the mere threat of Soviet carrier aviation had made a large impact upon layout of Western defence spending.
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