 Design work began in 1935 on new battleships in response to the existing and planned German battleships , and the Soviets made extensive efforts in Italy and the United States to purchase either drawings or the ships themselves in the late 1930s . The Italian firm of <unk> . <unk> & C. proposed a ship of 42 @,@ 000 long tons ( 43 @,@ 000 t ) standard displacement with nine 16 @-@ inch ( 406 mm ) guns , in size and appearance similar to the Italian battleship <unk> then under construction by the company . The U.S. firm of Gibbs & Cox provided four designs ; one for a conventional battleship , and three hybrid designs which combined battleship main armament with a raised flight deck on the central superstructure capable of operating up to 30 aircraft . While these projects proved useful to the Soviets , they decided to proceed with their own designs . 
