Keeping extra Soviet warships out of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The Red Fleet alternate history deliberately removes its additional Soviet capital ships from Khrushchev's available forces during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Graf Zeppelin and the other major ships enter extensive reconstruction so that their presence cannot become a reason for a different Soviet decision. This is a constraint chosen to preserve the crisis outcome, with Khrushchev's response to stronger forces left uncertain. Graf Zeppelin's subsequent carrier development also changes the scenario's requirements for later Soviet ships. Operational experience with the existing carrier shapes the new-carrier studies, so historical proposals from the 1950s cannot simply be inserted unchanged.