Kronshtadt-class battlecruiser
Side view as the design appeared in early 1939
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | |
| Operators: |
 Soviet Navy
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| Preceded by: | Borodino class |
| Succeeded by: | Stalingrad class |
| Built: | 1939–1941 |
| Planned: | 2–3 |
| Cancelled: | 2 |
| General characteristics (Project 69-I) | |
| Type: | Battlecruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 242.1 m (794 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 31.6 m (103 ft 8 in) |
| Draft: | 9.7 m (31 ft 10 in) (full load) |
| Installed power: | 210,000 shp (156,597 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) |
| Range: | 8,300 nautical miles (15,372 km; 9,551 mi) at 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,819 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 2 Beriev KOR-2 seaplanes |
| Aviation facilities: | 1 catapult |
The Kronshtadt-class battlecruisers, with the Soviet designation as Project 69 heavy cruisers, (Russian: Тяжёлые крейсера проекта 69), were ordered for the Soviet Navy in the late 1930s. Two ships were started but none were completed due to World War II. These ships had a complex and prolonged design process which was hampered by constantly changing requirements and the Great Purge in 1937. They were laid down in 1939, with an estimated completion date in 1944, but Stalin's naval construction program proved to be more than the shipbuilding and armaments industries could handle. Prototypes of the armament and machinery had not even been completed by 22 June 1941, almost two years after the start of construction. This is why the Soviets bought twelve surplus 38-centimeter (15.0 in) SK C/34 guns, and their twin turrets, similar to those used in the Bismarck-class battleships, from Germany in 1940. The ships were partially redesigned to accommodate them, after construction had already begun, but no turrets were actually delivered before Operation Barbarossa.
Only Kronshtadt's hull survived the war reasonably intact and was about 10% complete in 1945. She was judged obsolete and the Soviets considered converting her into an aircraft carrier, but the idea was rejected and both hulls were scrapped in 1947.
The Kronshtadt-class battlecruisers had their origin in a mid-1930s requirement for a large cruiser (Russian: bol'shoi kreiser) capable of destroying 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) cruisers built to the limits imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty, to which the Soviets were not a signatory. Several designs were submitted by the end of 1935, but the Navy was not satisfied and rejected all of them. It asked for another design, displacing 23,000 metric tons (22,637 long tons) and armed with 254-millimeter (10.0 in) guns, in early 1936, eventually designated Project 22, but this design was cancelled after the Soviets began negotiations in mid-1936 with the British that ultimately resulted in the Anglo-Soviet Quantitative Naval Agreement of 1937 and agreed to follow the terms of the Second London Naval Treaty which limited battleships to a displacement of 35,000 long tons (35,562 t). The Soviets had been working on a small battleship design (Battleship 'B') for service in the Baltic and Black Seas and had to shrink it as a result of these discussions to a size close to that of the Project 22 large cruiser so that the latter was cancelled. Battleship 'B' was redesignated as Project 25 and given the task of destroying Treaty cruisers and German pocket battleships. The Project 25 design was accepted in mid-1937 after major revisions in the armor scheme and the machinery layout and four were ordered with construction to begin in late 1937 and early 1938. However, this decision occurred right before the Great Purge began to hit the Navy in August 1937 and two of the ship's designers were arrested and executed within a year. The Project 25 design was then rejected on the grounds that it was too weak compared to foreign ships and the whole program was cancelled in early 1938 after an attempt to modify the design with larger guns had been made.
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