The impetus to build air capable warships for the Russian Navy emerged in the early 1960s. With the fall of the Nikita Khrushchev’s Presidency, Leonard Brezhnev took the nation in a completely new direction and with it the future design and composition of the Russian Navy. The Russian’s had no, real, history of operating aircraft carriers and even in official documents those that could operate aircraft were referred to simply as ‘aircraft carrying cruisers’. By the 1960s, the United States and her allies had established a heady lead in the development of aircraft carriers over the Russians, which persists to this day. America fields 11 supercarriers and 11 LHDs to Russia’s single carrier.
Russia’s first foray into developing a creditable naval aviation capability emerged with the construction of the Moskva-class helicopter cruisers. Two ships, and sister ship entered service in 1967 and 1969. In design, they had a large helicopter deck aft with a heavy armament of
