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What happens when China buys a decommissioned Soviet aircraft carrier? Turn it into a theme park, of course!
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, several of the USSR's famous aircraft-carrying cruisers found themselves in an unusual position. Ships that had once represented Soviet naval power were suddenly obsolete, expensive to operate, and ultimately sold off. But instead of simply disappearing into the scrapyard, some of them found a second life in China.
In this video, we take a look at the strange story of the Soviet Kiev-class aircraft-carrying cruisers and how China transformed these Cold War warships into tourist attractions.
We begin with the origins of the Kiev class and the Soviet concept of the "aircraft-carrying cruiser." Unlike American aircraft carriers, these ships were designed around a combination of aviation facilities and heavy offensive missile armament. Their primary roles included anti-submarine warfare, fleet support, and defending Soviet ballistic missile submarines. With their enormous SS-N-12 anti-ship missiles and Yak-38 V/STOL aircraft, they represented one of the strangest approaches to naval aviation during the Cold War.
We then follow the careers of Kiev and Minsk, from their service with the Soviet Navy to the collapse of the Soviet Union. With Russia struggling financially in the 1990s, maintaining massive warships was no longer practical, and both vessels were eventually decommissioned and sold.
Minsk was initially sold to South Korea for scrapping before being purchased by a Chinese company in 1998. After being stripped of her military equipment and converted, the former Soviet flagship became the centerpiece of Minsk World in Shenzhen—a bizarre combination of military museum, theme park, Soviet nostalgia, restaurants, performances, and recreational attractions.
Kiev followed a similar path. Purchased for scrap, she was instead transformed into a massive tourist attraction in Tianjin. Visitors could explore much of the former Soviet carrier while enjoying military-themed attractions, exhibitions, performances, and even a hotel inside the ship.
But there was another reason these ships were particularly valuable to China. During the development of the modern People's Liberation Army Navy, Soviet aircraft carriers provided Chinese naval architects and engineers with an opportunity to directly study large-deck warship construction, flight deck arrangements, aircraft elevators, internal compartmentation, and other aspects of carrier design.
The story of Minsk, however, ultimately took a much darker turn. After Minsk World closed in 2016, the ship was moved to Nantong for another planned redevelopment. Years of financial problems followed, and in 2024 a major fire broke out aboard the vessel during restoration and dismantling work.
So how did Soviet aircraft carriers end up as Chinese theme parks? What did China learn from these strange Cold War warships? And what happened to Minsk?
Let's take a look at one of the strangest afterlives in naval history.
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