The starboard side of the former Soviet aircraft carrier Minsk moored in Shenzhen, China, as seen from a motorboat. (Wikimedia Commons / BrokenSphere)

To describe Soviet-era Kiev-class vessels as “aircraft carriers” has always been a stretch. Unlike the hefty, flat-decked warships that function as floating airbases, the class more closely resembles a cruiser-carrier hybrid. They were built to fulfill the Soviets’ need for a sea-based missile platform during the Cold War. Despite the carrier’s armament-lugging capabilities, its overall effectiveness was sorely limited.

Today, one Kiev class warship is rotting away in a China-based theme park that is now closed.

Designed to rival American-made counterparts like the Kitty Hawk-class carriers, the Kiev-class vessels were specifically designated as “heavy aviation cruisers” when first introduced. Their layout was in part derived from the Orel full-deck carrier, a previous proposal that was ultimately scrapped during the draft phase.

Each ship in the Kiev class was constructed at the Ukraine-based Nikolayev South Shipyards, the primary Soviet manufacturer of large surface warships.

An angled flight-deck took up roughly two-thirds the length of the ships’ total deck, while the rest was dedicated to surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles. Each was........

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