In the late 1930s, a program was built for the construction of the "Big Sea and Ocean Fleet", and the creation of linear Soviet ships intended for combat operations during an enemy attack began. One of the very first models of these powerful ships was called the “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, the battleship for the Pacific Fleet, was completed. However, the further development and planned laying of the first ships in Leningrad at that moment did not occur.
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 in charge of the project was arrested: a group led by B. Chilikin, head of the design bureau V. Brzezinski, responsible for the project V. Rimsky-Korsakov, developer of ship power plants A. Speransky. They were replaced by other designers.
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 time cost 1.2 billion rubles.
When choosing weapons for battleships of the type "Soviet Union", various options were considered. It was originally planned that the warships of Project No. 23 will 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 presented by artillery machine guns (anti-aircraft guns) of 37 mm caliber (40 pcs.) And 12.7 mm caliber machine guns, as well as catapults and seaplanes KOR-1.
A special place was given to the armor of the ship. Armor protection was a complex design of armor plates of different thicknesses. Attention was paid to the quality of their connection. Different options were offered: in a checkerboard pattern, on rivets in 3 rows, using welding, on dowels.
The power plant included six boilers with powerful performance, each of 173 t / h of steam. The electric power system consists of four turbogenerators 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, the battleships of Project No. 23 were to surpass all other battleships of the Second World War. From the moment of laying the foundation, work on their construction was carried out at an intensive pace, experiments and tests were carried out.
The beginning of the war was the end for the further development of the project “Battleship Soviet Union.” During the war years, the ships were partially dismantled, and at the end of its further construction was deemed inappropriate. All work was suspended in accordance with the order of the State Defense Committee. All the ships available at that time were dismantled.