HISTORY
Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov
(Russian: Адмира́л фло́та Сове́тского Сою́за Кузнецо́в "Admiral of
the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov") is an aircraft carrier
(heavy aircraft cruiser in Russian classification) serving as the
flagship of the Russian Navy. It was built by the Black Sea
Shipyard, the sole manufacturer of Soviet aircraft carriers, in
Nikolayev within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). The
initial name of the ship was Riga; it was launched as Leonid
Brezhnev, embarked on sea trials as Tbilisi, and finally named
Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov after Admiral of the fleet
of the Soviet Union Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov.
It was originally commissioned in the Soviet Navy, and was intended
to be the lead ship of the two-ship Kuznetsov class. However, its
sister ship Varyag was still incomplete when the Soviet Union
collapsed in 1991. The second hull was eventually sold by Ukraine to
the People's Republic of China, completed in Dalian and commissioned
as Liaoning.
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