Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Notable Point · 28:27-32:15

What completed Borodinos might have changed

The Borodino battlecruisers offer a counterfactual route to a more mobile early Soviet capital-ship doctrine.

14-inch GunsAlternate HistoryBattlecruisersBorodino Class BattlecruisersGangut Class BattleshipsImperator Nikolai IImperial Japanese NavyNaval Arms LimitationNaval DiplomacyNaval DoctrineRed FleetRussian Civil WarRussian RevolutionSoviet NavyWashington Naval TreatyWhite Movement
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Notes

One or two completed Borodino battlecruisers could have given the Soviet Union faster, better-protected capital ships than the surviving Ganguts. With twelve 14-inch guns and roughly 26-27 knots, they would have offered a mobile instrument rather than a slow inherited battle line. Their location during the revolution and civil war could also have affected the balance between Red and White naval forces. In the longer term, operational experience with them might have changed Soviet doctrine and encouraged Japanese pressure to include the Soviet Union in interwar naval-treaty calculations.