She temporarily mounted an imported Heinkel aircraft catapult atop the third turret between 1930 and 1933. It was transferred to the cruiser when "Sevastopol" began the first stage of her reconstruction in November 1933. This was based on that done for her sister "Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya", but was even more extensive. Her rear superstructure was enlarged and a new structure was built just forward of it which required the repositioning of the mainmast forward. This did not leave enough room for a derrick, as was fitted in "Marat", and two large booms were fitted to handle aircraft while the existing boat cranes remained in place. The mast had to be reinforced by two short legs to handle the weight of the booms and their loads. Her false bow was reworked into a real forecastle like those fitted to her sisters. All twenty-five of her old boilers were replaced by a dozen oil-fired boilers originally intended for the s. The space saved was used to add another inboard longitudinal watertight bulkhead that greatly improved her underwater protection.