Stalin's carrier plans also fit a longer Russian concern with defending a geographically enormous state. Allied maritime intervention during the Russian Civil War supplied a recent example of outside powers using sea access to influence events inside Russia. A modern fleet with organic aviation could make similar intervention harder and protect distant parts of the Soviet Union without relying on one concentrated land-based air network. In this geographical use of 'empire,' the term refers to rule over a vast contiguous territory, though the label becomes misleading when reduced to a slogan. The carrier requirement therefore extended from fleet protection to defence of the state itself.
Notable Point · 41:37-43:43
Soviet carriers as protection against maritime intervention
The Soviet carrier ambition also reflected memories of foreign naval intervention and the difficulty of protecting a vast, coastally exposed state.