The Imperial Russian Navy, 1863 - 1919
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Battleship Retvizan and cruiser Askold break out of Port Arthur and sortie to the Battle of the Yellow Sea, August 1904.
In the pre-dreadnought era, the Russians operated the third largest navy on the face of the globe. The Russian fleet contained an interesting and varied collection of one-offs, experimental small battleships, two completely round ironclads each driven by six propellers, and some ocean-going giants of impressive size and lofty demeanor. The Tsarist navy also proved open to new weapons systems such as mines, torpedoes and submarines. However, the navy mirrored the society as a whole.
The Imperial Russian Navy was not a meritocracy. There was a hereditary officer class with little accountabililty which often failed the tests of initiative and courage applied more rigorously to those in the ranks. Aside from the uneven level of leadership, being third biggest did not make the Russians third best. Like the Russian empire itself, the Russian Navy was enormous, ungainly, badly organized, riddled with corruption and favoritism. Yet, like the Russian soul, it expressed an aspiration to greater things. Experimental layouts that might never have been tried elsewhere were given a fair shot in the Russian fleet. New attack modalities such as the torpedo boat and submarine were given free range. The rage for French stylings which ran away with the Russian Admiralty in the 1890s made for a picturesque episode, coinciding with the fleet's greatest undertaking in war -- leading to its greatest disaster: the Battle of Tsushima, still remembered with dread and awe in Russia. In that contest, the French design of the Borodino class ships and the men who crewed them were alike found wanting. But, in fairness, not even the best fleet in the world could have triumphed, working with the half-baked war plans and weak grasp of strategy at the very head of the Russian state.
One other reason the Russian fleet was less impressive than the numbers show: it was divided up into three large regional commands. The vast extent of Russian lands dictated a division into regional fleets. First came the Baltic fleet, protecting the capital, with main bases at Kronstadt guarding the approaches to Petersburg and Libau (Liepaja) on the westernmost fringe of the Tsar's domain, in present-day Latvia. Next came the Black Sea fleet, on guard (or on offensive) against the Turk, Russia's hereditary enemy, with the main base at Sevastopol in the SW Crimea. And as the 19th century drew to its close and the Tsar reached his tentacles into China, the Pacific Fleet took its place in the limelight. Based at Vladivostok and after 1897 at Port Arthur, this force guaranteed Russia's unimpeded access to Manchuria's mineral wealth and labor pool, her unchallenged operation of ports and railways to take away the spoils of their exploitation, without interference from European rivals or from Japan. This multiplicity of duties led to a certain lack of focus and -- despite the large number of ships -- a localized weakness vis-a-vis likely opponents. In the Far East Russia did indeed obtain an edge in force deployed, but squandered this advantage with sloppy administration, poor combat readiness, and the lack of any coherent strategy.
Although there were impressive numbers of ironclads on the roster, a great number were obsolete vessels. A substantial number of Russian ironclads were shallow-draft, low-freeboard vessels designed for coast defense work. That did not protect them from risking all for the Tsar: however unsuitable for deep-sea voyaging, they were ordered off to Asia with Adm. Rozhdestvensky in 1904. One of these ships fought to the last shell, while the others abjectly surrendered and served out their days under the colours of the Rising Sun.
Most of Russia's ironclads were purchased abroad from the beginning; in the 1880s as Russia became capable of building full-size warships, even the best country-built ships got their engines from Britain or Germany. The Tsesarevich, considered the Tsar's best battleship by his own ministers, was built at La Seyne in France and copied in the Russian-built, five-ship Borodino class. This project proved quite a stretch for Russia's industrial plant and corrupt management system. The Retvizan was built in the U.S., the Askold and the Novik in Germany, and the Boyarin in Denmark. Russia borrowed recklessly from foreign banks to build up its fleet for the inevitable clash with Japan. In the event, the cumbersome and ill-assorted collection of vessels at the Viceroy's command in Port Arthur proved far less effective than Adm. Togo's slightly smaller, but more homogeneous force. The lack of Russian colonial ports and fueling stations did not deter the outstanding feat of seamanship of the time: the movement of Russia's Baltic fleet halfway around the globe. A deal with German steamship tycoon , arranged with the Kaiser's good offices, placed the Hamburg-Amerika line's fleet at the Russian admiral's disposal at regular intervals along the route, ensuring a steady supply of fuel. French colonial officials connived to wink at neutrality regulations along the way, granting respites for the weary fleet to coal and refit; but despite the disorganization of the voyage and the doom that swallowed the fleet at journey's end, this remains a worthy feat of navigation. It is outlined in some detail in our Battle of Tsushima page. Those curious about this adventure are advised to read Konstantin Pleshakov's definitive account, The Tsar's Last Armada.
Due to the great number of interesting ships, we have divided the Russian Navy into three periods: Early Ironclads, Pre-Dreadnoughts, and Dreadnoughts. You will find full coverage of the delightful pre-dreadnought ships in the nav at left, plus buttons to take you to the other two sections. Remember, the this website does not purport to be definitive, merely representative. We do provide links to enable you to dig into further research when appropriate. We throw our primary searchlight on characteristic Russian pre-dreadnoughts: smallish ships quite adequate for deterring the Turks and patroling the the Empire's far-flung coastlines, but never intended to challenge, say, Britain's Royal Navy.
Visitors will find our photo essays on the Russian Navy a particularly lush one, illustrated with an extravagant wealth of photographs. The owners of the site would like to acknowledge the principal source of this lavish display: the Anatoly Odaynik archive of photos of Russian warships. This magnificent collection rivals the USNHC for comprehensiveness but has the additional advantage of the images' mostly being posted in high-res, easing the job for our resident Photoshop ace Ross "Radar" Radetzky. Those interested can wander through this wide-ranging archive of naval photo records at the Navsource.Narod.RU site. An elementary knowledge of Russian -- or at least of the Cyrillic alphabet -- is helpful in navigating this archive.
Conflict and Implosion
The famous battleship Potemkin patrolling the Black Sea the year after her equally famous mutiny. Based at Sevastopol, captured in turn by Reds, Germans, British, and Bolsheviks, she remained in service until 1925; though her machinery was badly damaged during the Civil War in 1919, reducing her to a stationary gunnery training ship and film prop in her final years. This was a fate she shared with a number of her mates.
The Russian navy was involved in full-scale war with Japan and the biggest fleet confrontations in pre-WWI times, a clash coming at the summit of pre-dreadnought development. Ship after ship in the roster at left was lost or surrendered to Japan. After the painful defeat by Japan, the Russian Navy underwent a modest rebirth. Three more Bayan class cruisers were added, as were a semi-dreadnought armored cruiser and a pair of semi-dreadnought battleships. After this, responding to the accelerated pace of the naval arms race in Europe, the tsar's ministers ordered eight turbine-powered dreadnoughts. Of these last six were completed in time for war and civil war.
The biography of each ship on these pages was intimately twined with the politics of pre-revolutionary, revolutionary, and post-revolutionary Russia. In several cases, indeed, as far as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. The mutiny on the new battleship Potemkin took place during the abortive 1905 Revolution, when the ship was brand new. Twelve years later, the Bolsheviks seized power. During the first few years of communist rule, they used the dramatic tale of the Potemkin to inspire through traveling propaganda plays (a Trotsky specialty). Lenin and Trotsky both encouraged their star filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, to make the mutiny into a propaganda film (right). Given use of the original vessel and a sister ship and a couple of other older warships, with no limits on personnel or special effects, Eisenstein produced one of his greatest masterpieces, the silent Battleship Potemkin (1925). Some feel this thrilling battleship story has never been excelled in the long years of cinema since. To read the gritty, moving story of the ship's life and times, visit our Potemkin page. If it's poetry you seek, there is plenty of cinematic poetry in the film as well. But if it's amazing true sea stories you seek, any ship here will do: if it was in the Russian navy in the period, it took part in the harsh clashes of the Russo-Japanese-WWI-revolutionary period. Some ships changed sides during the Civil War -- some changed three, four, even five times. The Andrei Pervozvanny, a semi-dreadnought eight years in service, was torpedoed by a British destroyer in 1919 and never sailed again. Yet others survived well into the Soviet period: pre-dreadnoughts through the early Thirties, dreadnoughts built of the eve of WWI remaining in commission through the mid-1950s, still mounting their legendary Model 1907 12-in guns. Another notable Russian battleship was the Novorossiysk: the former Italian Giulio Cesare of 1914, awarded to the USSR as reparations; she sank in 1955 after a mysterious explosion and fire in an incident that has never been convincingly explained.
Delve with us into this rich corner of battleship history. It's a heady mix of ideology, adventure, politics, ships, and skullduggery. And when you're surfeited, head on to review the French fleet, an inspiration for many of the most modern pre-dreadnoughts built by Russia pre-1905; or indeed, tour any of the other major navies of the time. Yours at the click of a mouse here at BigBadBattleships.com.
A Russian Navy Portfolio
Bristling with 6- and 8-inch guns, the cruisers Gromoboi, Bogatyr, and Rossiya streak across the Sea of Japan sinking what enemy-flagged commerce they encounter. There were moments of gallantry and courage in the Russians' losing fight against Japan, but this was not one of them.
The linchpin of Russian power in the Far East was the naval and industrial base at Port Arthur, Manchuria. On seizing the territory from China after the Tripartite Intervention of 1895, the Russians built an extensive base with dockyard, commercial shipping port, and a fortifications system of mind-boggling complexity. Above, battle flags streaming, the armored cruiser Bayan leads the Port Arthur Squadron on a wartime sortie. Titled the First Pacific Squadron, the Port Arthur detachment consisted of six battleships, the Bayan and three other cruisers, and a squadron of destroyers, plus a minelayer, transports, and numerous support vessels.
Launch of the battleship Borodino, 15,000 tons, at New Admiralty Shipyard, St. Petersburg, 1901.
Battleship Retvizan dressed over all. A half-sister to the Potemkin, she was built in America at Cramps' yard, fought at the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904, and served for 16 years as the Imperial Japanese battleship Hizen after her capture in January 1905.
Coast defense battleships Adm. Ushakov and Adm. Senyavin on maneuvers in the Baltic, 1902. Despite their marginal seaworthiness, the 3 low-freeboard ironclads of the Admiral class were sent on the fool's errand to Tsushima in 1904. Traveling out, they made up one division of a second flotilla despatched after the main force was well on its way around Africa. Consisting of the ships Rozhdestvensky had rejected as too old or too unseaworthy, this squadron, under the command of Adm. Nebogatoff, transited the Mediterranean and Suez Canal and joined up with the main fleet at Madagascar. At Tsushima, Ushakov went down with her guns still firing on the morning of the second day. Overtaken by Japanese cruisers in flight toward Vladivostok, Senyavin and Apraksin surrendered just before Nebogatoff in Nikolai I struck his colors. All these older ironclads were mustered into the Mikado's navy, where some served well into the Twenties. A number of the Russian artificers and engineering officers were employed by the Japanese initially to keep their temperamental new acquisitions running.
The nerve center of Imperial Russian Navy operations was the splendid Admiralty Building, buit 1806-1823 at the intersection of 3 of St. Petersburg's main thoroughfares. Designed by Adrian Zakharov and lavishly decorated with sculpture and murals, with a weathervane of a square-rigged ship atop its 200-ft spire, it is a famous St. Petersburg landmark and an icon of the city itself, being visible from all points in the historic Nyeva District. Now housing the State Naval Engineering College, the campus with its beautiful gardens and grand fountain is prized as a meeting place for city residents.
Battleship Tsesarevich in the Far East. With her French curves, she was the model for the 5-ship Borodino class, but more fortunate in battle than any of them. Tsesarevich fought at the Yellow Sea in 1904 and the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917, as flagship on both occasions.
