The Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships (Project 23) were a series of Soviet battleships designed in the late 1930s to counter Germany's Bismarck-class, but were never completed. Although 16 were initially planned, only four were laid down; these were halted in 1941, deemed obsolete, and scrapped in the late 1940s. Designed to be comparable to the Japanese Yamato class, they were to feature nine 406-mm (16-inch) guns, but ultimately lacked the necessary armor production capabilities. - World of War

The Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships (Project 23, Russian: Советский Союз, 'Soviet Union'), also known as "Stalin's Republics", were a class of battleships begun by the Soviet Union in the late 1930s but never brought into service. They were designed in response to the Bismarck-class battleships being built by Germany. Only four hulls of the sixteen originally planned had been laid down by 1940, when the decision was made to cut the program to only three ships to divert resources to an expanded