The Soviet aircraft carrier that was legally a cruiser

Countries & Cities · Published 12 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: To bypass international maritime restrictions, the Soviet Union built a hybrid ship. By classifying the Kiev-class as a "heavy aviation cruiser" rather than a pure aircraft carrier, the USSR ensured these massive vessels could transit the Turkish Straits—a maneuver forbidden for larger carriers under the 1936 Montreux Convention.

The Kiev-class (Project 1143 Krechyet) represented a radical shift in Soviet naval doctrine. Originally, the Navy intended to build the Moskva-class ASW carriers, but successful flight demonstrations of the Yak-36 VTOL aircraft prompted Commander in Chief Sergei Gorshkov to demand a redesign. The resulting Kiev-class was engineered to support ballistic missile submarines and naval aviation while maintaining a massive armament of anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air systems. This dual identity as a "heavy aviation cruiser" was a strategic masterstroke. The Soviet Union labelled these 43,000–45,500 metric ton vessels as 'heavy aviation cruisers' to bypass 1936 Montreux Convention rules, which barred aircraft carriers exceeding 15,000 tons from traversing the Turkish Straits. Structurally, the ships featured a large island superstructure to starboard and an angled flight deck covering two-thirds of the total deck, with the foredeck packed with heavy surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missile systems. The class saw significant evolution across four hulls. The Kiev and Minsk featured 8 P-500 Bazalt anti-ship missiles, while the Novorossiysk (Project 11433) was modified to remove reload bunkers deemed impractical for combat. The fourth ship, Baku (Project 11434), underwent the most extreme transformation; it was extensively redesigned with a shortened superstructure and enlarged elevators to accommodate the Yak-41, eventually becoming the Indian Navy's INS Vikramaditya in 2004.

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