In the era of superpowers, the Soviet Union once had the second most powerful navy in the world, and competed fiercely with the US Navy in the world's oceans. However, in terms of aircraft carriers, there is a big gap between the Soviet Union and the United States, which was not bridged until the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It seems that the turbulent Russia cannot have an aircraft carrier comparable to the United States in a short time.

Compared with the US Navy, the Soviet Union started late, developed slowly, and the development level of aircraft carriers was low. It was not until 1967 that the "Moscow" class helicopter carrier appeared, but it was neither a donkey nor a horse, so it could not be called an aircraft carrier. After several years' efforts, in the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union finally had Kiev-class "tactical air cruisers or organic heavy cruisers" with vertical take-off and landing aircraft, which was regarded as the correct way to initially develop aircraft carriers. It is the second-generation aircraft carrier of the Soviet Union and has Soviet characteristics. It has the same equipment as a heavy cruiser and is less dependent on escort ships. The Soviet Union called it "heavy carrier cruiser" or "heavy anti-submarine cruiser".

There are four ships in this class. They are Kiev, Minsk, Novorossiysk and gorshkov.