The Story of STALINGRAD
The Stalingrad-class battlecruiser, also known as Project 82 (Russian: Тяжёлые крейсера проекта 82), was a battlecruiser design of the Soviet Union in 1941. It was a smaller and less-expensive counterpart to the Kronshtadt-class battlecruisers of 1939. The original role was for a light, fast ship intended to break up attacks by British fast-cruiser forces that might attempt bombardment of Russia's northern ports. In keeping with the battlecruiser design concept, they would have been able to outgun any ship with similar speed, or outrun anything more heavily armed. Design work had just started when the German invasion of the Soviet Union opened and the design was put on hold. The design was reimagined in 1944, intended to operate along with the Sverdlov-class cruisers and proposed aircraft carriers to make up powerful task forces able to challenge the American fleet. In this role it would need to be a more powerful ship than the original design, taking over for the now-cancelled Kronstadts. They were intended to fend off enemy attacks and protect the carriers when bad weather prevented flying. A series of four were ordered, and Stalingrad finally began construction in 1951. Supported primarily by Joseph Stalin and opposed by a considerable part of the naval staff, the project came to an abrupt end with Stalin's death in 1953.
