Russian battleship built at Kronstadt nearly completed according to a CIA report dated 30 January 1950

An item reported that at Kronstadt, Soviet Union the construction of a 36.000-40.000 ton large battleship (1) was almost finished and the ship was to be sent with 25 submarine chasers to the naval base at Usedom.(2) That naval base was still under construction. There seems to be a remote possibility that this intended tied in with the alleged rocket base construction. About the ship herself were hardly details, The armament consisted of automatically controlled long range guns, 28cm guns mounted in twin gun turrets, nine heavy anti aircraft rocket guns and two catapult for launching aircraft.

At the end of the report were two comments made. The first one was that the rocket base construction was Peenemunde (3) and reactivation was doubtful. Secondly, there were doubts about the suitability of Usedom as a naval base with the needed facilities for a battleship. The mentioned 28cm/11” guns were to be the second battery and not the main armament.

Notes

1. The Stalingrad-class battle cruisers or Project 82 had a displacement of 36.500 (standard)-42.300 (full load) tons and the secondary armament consisted of twin gun turrets although mounted with 12cm/15.1” guns. Their main armament consisted of 3x3-30,5cm/12.0” guns. There are designs developed to arm this class with cruise and missiles partly or even just entire. The Moskva was laid down at the Baltic Yard, Leningrad [St. Petersburg] and to be completed in 1955 nut broken up still on the slipways in 1953. The battleships of the Sovetsky Soyuz class battleships had a displacement of 59.150 (standard)-65.150 (full load) tons.

2. Usedom island in the Baltic Sea since 1945 divided between Germany and Poland.

3. In 1936 realized the German Luftwaffe there an airfield (where the V-1 flying bomb was tested) and a year later founded the German army the Peenemünde Arm Research Centre. Here were during the Second World War guided missiles and rockets developed like the V-2. The centre was bombarded during the war and Russian forces discovered after the capture on 5 May 1945 of the seaport of Swinemünde at Usedom Island that around 75% was destroyed including all buildings and rocket test stands. Despite rumors that the Soviet Union reactivated Peenemünde as rocket centre were in the period 1948-1961 what was left of the technical facilities further demolished.

Source

The report was published on www.archive.org, document number CIA-RDP82-00457R004200600008-5