Soyuz-class battleship
 Krasnaya Belovya c.1941
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: |
8 Noyabrya Shipyards,  Stasnov |
| Operators: | Stasnovan Revolutionary Navy |
| Preceded by: | Respublika-class (former Imperator-class) |
| Succeeded by: | Slava-class (planned) |
| Built: | 1935-1940 |
| In service: | 1940-1960 |
| Planned: | 5 |
| Completed: | 2 |
| Cancelled: | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Battleship |
| Length: | 262 metres |
| Beam: | 38 metres |
| Draft: | 10 metres |
| Installed power: | 211,000 shp (150,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 3 shafts, Sokolov steam turbines |
| Speed: | 28 knots |
| Range: | 7,680 nmi (14,220 km; 8,840 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement: | ~2,700 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 4 Vasin Va-4 flying boats |
| Aviation facilities: | 2 Heinkel K-12 catapults |
The Soyuz-class was a pair of battleships built the Revolutionary Navy of the Stasnovan Union. The Soyuz-class were the largest and most powerful warships built for the Stasnovan Revolutionary Navy in the period, as well as the heaviest class ever buit in Stasnov. Armed with three triple 406 mm gun turrets and able to sail at a speed of 28 knots, the Soyuz battleships were strong contestants for the title of the most powerful vessels in the Zentrum Sea. The two ships served throughout the war, and participated in virtually all major Stasnovan naval operations. The class was named Soyuz (Union) and its planned five ships were supposed to bear the names of the five "Red Republics". However, only Krasnaya Belovya (Red Belovya) and Krasnaya Korskaya (Red Korskaya) were finished before the war started, and construction of the rest of the ships was cancelled. As a result, the two vessels came to be known as "Malenkov's Daughters" or "Malenkov's Twins", as it was Premier Kiril A. Malenkov himself - a long time advocate of a strong navy - who aporved their construction.
Background[edit]
The catastrophic loss of the majority of the Imperial Stasnovan Navy during the First Great War and the following Civil War left the newly born Stasnovan Union without a major surface force. Particularly, the battleship force of the young Revolutionary Navy was composed of just three Gangut-class battleships: the Mark Krauss (former Imperator Alexei II), the Anatoly Volkov (former Knyaz Zakharov) and the heavily damaged Rabotnik (former Imperatritsa Anna Velikaya). Stasnov was a heavily industrialised country even before the Revolution, with a significant shipbuilding industry, however, the civil war reduced both the nation's industry and its funds. As such, it was decided that only the Krauss and Volkov were to be retained, and the Rabotnik was broken up for scrap, along with two of the three Imperator-class hulls that had been laid down pre-war and were left unfinished, while the most completed one, the Imperator Nikolai IV, was finished as the unique battleship Respublika.
Moskvin's retirement in 1935 led to the election of Kiril A. Malenkov, a former People's Commissar of Defence and strong advocate of a strong navy. By Malenkov's order, several design teams were put together to come up with a larger, well armed and armoured design. The results were the forward battery Project 22, the Gangut-styel Project 23 with equally distributed main armament, and the more conventional Project 24, with a 2-2 triple 365 mm turret arrangement. Prject 26 won the competition and preparations for the constructions of 5 ships began. However, information acquired by the KGB revealed that the planned TBD-class battleships of Vazandia - the then foremost Stasnovan rival - were to mount 406 mm guns, and as such, necessary redesigns were made. The new class, now known as Project 27, and later the Soyuz-class, now mounted three triple 406 mm turrets (two front, one rear) and had improved deck armour and torpedo bulges.