 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 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 army rearmament program . 
 The Sovetsky Soyuz @-@ class battleships ( Project 23 , Russian : Советский Союз , " Soviet Union " ) , also known as " Stalin <a href='null_genetive' title='1'><mark>'s</mark></a>Republics " , <a href='uninflect' title='2'><mark>were</mark></a> a class of battleships begun by the Soviet Union in the late 1930s but <a href='None' title='3'><mark>never</mark></a> brought into <a href='negative_concord' title='4'><mark>service</mark></a> . They <a href='uninflect' title='5'><mark>were</mark></a> designed in response to the battleships being built by Germany . Only four hulls of the sixteen originally planned <a href='been_done' title='6'><mark>had</mark></a> been laid down by 1940 , when the decision was made to cut the program to only three ships to divert resources to an expanded army rearmament program . 
The Sovetsky Soyuz @-@ class battleships ( Project 23 , Russian : Советский Союз , " Soviet Union " ) , also known as " Stalin  Republics " , was a class of battleships begun by the Soviet Union in the late 1930s but don't never brought into no service . They was designed in response to the battleships bein built by Germany . Only 4 hulls of the sixteen originally planned done been laid down by 1940 , when da decision was made to cut tdaprogram to only three ships to divert resources to an expanded army rearmament program .