An impossible battlefleet leaves Project 68 as the cornerstone

In this assessment, the Soviet program was even less realistic than Germany's Plan Z because it promised several regional battlefleets without the yards and support network needed to build or sustain them. The Soviet Union first needed infrastructure to construct the infrastructure that could eventually produce the planned ships. Battleships, battlecruisers, and carriers were begun but never completed, while Project 68 cruisers survived the war and entered service. Those completed hulls became the practical cornerstones of Soviet power projection and helped establish the cruiser-centered pattern later visible in Russian naval force structure.