Stalingrad

History

The genesis for Project 82 (Russian: Тяжёлые крейсера проекта 82) began in 1941 with the requirement to design a “heavy cruiser” that would fulfill operational roles between the Kirov-class light cruisers and the then-under construction Project 69 large cruisers. The requirement of these ships was to focus on engaging enemy light cruisers, with secondary roles to disrupt enemy communications and logistics. For this role, the original preliminary designs considered a vessel of 20,000 tons displacement, armaments comprised of 203mm main battery guns, a 36-knot speed, and a range of 10,000 nautical miles at 20 knots. Many of these details were adopted from the design processes behind Project 69. Initial debates did foresee an increase of displacement to 25,000 tons and an upgrade of main armaments to a proprietary 220mm caliber, but the commencement of Operation Barbarossa put the work on Project 69 and Project 82 on hold.

The project was revived again in late 1943, this time with updated requirements to the role of the new vessels: the protection of friendly naval aviation assets as part of a new combined carrier force doctrine. Most of the original parameters were retained, save for the replacement of the torpedo launchers with more anti-aircraft batteries. A re-assessment in late 1944 included further modifications: a reduction in top speed to 33 knots, a main battery of 220mm, increase of secondary batteries to 130mm guns, as well as the addition of heavy anti-air batteries in the form of 45mm, 37mm, and 23mm (later changed to 25mm) cannons.

The Soviet Navy was satisfied with the aforementioned specs, but the shipbuilding committee prevented further progress due to a lack of a foreseeable necessity of heavy cruisers. Regardless, the Navy was undeterred and continued on; in their eyes the new vessels would be used defensively to protect Soviet coasts and engage enemy carrier groups. Interestingly, in a government assembly in 1945, the General Secretary of the Community Part himself, Josef Stalin, requested that the main battery caliber be increased to 305mm; this later became treated as an official decree.

More pressingly, the Soviets at the time were incapable of building large ships, so any new vessels would only be improvements of current designs under construction. Therefore, the compromise agreed upon was the allow time for infrastructure to develop, optimistically by the early 1950s. Subsequently, further design discussions were postponed till the late 1940s. When such work was re-started, the Navy and the Shipbuilding Committee put for a joint proposal of the preliminary design: main battery between 220-305mm, 40,000 tons displacement, a 150mm main armor belt, and a 6,000 nautical mile range at 18 knots.

The specs were given to design bureau TsKB-17, who created 4 sketches; mostly differing in the secondary battery and machinery layout. One sketch was selected and the technical design was started but Stalin intervened. He wanted a smaller ship with a top speed of 35 knots, so the rear secondary turrets and their respective magazines were deleted.

The Navy did not approve of these changes — as they saw this as a compromise of the ship’s ability to engage heavy cruisers — but Stalin’s reasoning was as such: he envisioned the purpose of the Project 82 vessels to fight light cruisers. As the cruisers would fight close to friendly ports, their ammunition supplies could be sacrificed. He believed aircraft engaging the ships would have to fly low, so a large secondary battery was not as critical. Additionally, light AA could be sacrificed as escorting ships would be tasked with providing cover.

The final technical design was completed and approved by 1950. A final review in 1951 added a clipper bow — increasing the length of the ship by 10 meters — and the belt was thickened by 30mm.

Had she been completed in her early 1950s configuration, cruiser Stalingrad (Russian: Сталинград) would have been 273m long, 32m wide, with a 9m draft. Her hull was to be of completely welded construction, and she was the first Soviet warship with a complete flush deck from bow to stern. Furthermore she had reinforced construction in the shape of a triple bottom hull and 23 separate watertight compartments.

To achieve the planned 35-knot speed the designers opted for a total of 12 water-tube boilers feeding into 4 geared steam turbines, generating a potential of 280,000 shaft horse power. The machinery would have been organized into an alternating configuration of boiler rooms and turbine rooms, with each boiler and turbine room housing three boilers and two turbines, respectively.

Stalingrad’s armor scheme was complex. Despite the requirement asking for immunity against cruiser caliber weapons between 12 – 30 km engagement distances, approximately 10,000 tonnes of displacement was planned to be dedicated for just armor; a staggering 29% of the ship’s total weight. A main belt 180mm thick, with supplementary armor of 50 and 100mm thick found above and below the main belt protected the citadel. The belt itself would have been slanted by 15 degrees to work against both plunging and horizontal fire; it ran 60% of the length of the entire ship. Transverse bulkheads of 125 and 140mm thickness would close off the citadel fore and aft, respectively. There would have been a triple layer of armored decking covering the citadel; 50, 75, and 15 mm thick respectively. Other heavily reinforced sections would have included the turret housings, barbettes, and conning tower; all over 200 mm thick. The torpedo protection system is of further emphasis. It would be similar to the one that was pioneered on the Project 69 cruisers. It consisted of a pair of external bulges with 4 parallel armored bulkheads sandwiched inside. The inner two layers would be filled with oil while the outer layers filled with air, rated to withstand up to 500kg of TNT.

Despite retaining the same caliber weapons as the Gangut-class and Project 69, Stalingrad would have mounted new rifles of 61-calibers length housed in proprietary three-gun SM-6 turrets. The 1,400-ton turrets could traverse at a rate of 4.5 degrees per second and raise the guns up to +50 degrees of elevation. Compounded with the rifles' 950 meters per second muzzle velocity, this meant the cruisers could hurdle shells up to 53,000m away every 18 seconds. Another novelty is that in normal operations, all three turrets would have been remotely controlled from the main fire-controlled director.

The secondary battery design was also novel; twelve 130mm/58 rifles housed in 6 twin-gun BL-109A turrets. The dual-purpose mounts could hurdle shells 32km every 15 seconds. Complementing them were the light anti-air batteries in the form of 45mm and 25mm cannons, both found in fully enclosed quadruple mountings. The two weapon systems would create protective umbrellas of 12,000m and 2,000m respectively.

The process of hull construction for cruiser Stalingrad started in November 1951 at the Nikolayev Heavy Shipyards, with the formal keel laying on New Year's Day 1952. The plan was to launch her by November 1953 to coincide with the anniversary of the October Revolution, but by the start of 1953, she was only 18% complete; well behind schedule. Subsequent to Stalin’s death in March 1953, the project was summarily cancelled. At 70% complete, Stalingrad was launched on April 1954 as a target hulk.

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  Side and plan views of the Stalingrad class.

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  Presumably the only photo existing of Stalingrad’ hull.