 A Russian stamp honoring Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Russian Empire | |
| Name | Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya (Императрица Екатерина Великая (Empress Catherine the Great)) |
| Namesake | Catherine the Great |
| Operator | Imperial Russian Navy |
| Builder | ONZiV Shipyard, Nikolayev |
| Laid down | 30 October 1911[Note 1] |
| Launched | 6 June 1914 |
| Commissioned | 18 October 1915 |
| Renamed | Svobodnaya Rossiia (Свободная Россия (Free Russia)), 29 April 1917 |
.svg){kind=small} Russian SFSR | |
| Name | Svobodnaya Rossiia |
| Operator | Red Fleet |
| Acquired | November 1917 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 18 June 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleship |
| Displacement | 24,644 long tons (25,039 t) |
| Length | 556 ft (169.5 m) (waterline) |
| Beam | 92 ft (28 m) |
| Draft | 28 ft 7 in (8.7 m) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | 4 shafts; 4 steam turbines |
| Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range | 1,680 nautical miles (3,110 km; 1,930 mi) at 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Complement | 1,154 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya (Russian: Императрица Екатерина Великая (Empress Catherine the Great)) was the second of three Imperatritsa Mariya-class dreadnoughts built for the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I. Completed in 1915, she was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. She engaged the ex-German battlecruiser Yavûz Sultân Selîm once, but only inflicted splinter damage while taking no damage herself. The ship briefly encountered an Ottoman light cruiser, but mostly covered the actions of smaller ships during the war without firing her guns. These included minelaying operations off the Bosporus and anti-shipping sweeps of the coast of Anatolia. Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya was renamed Svobodnaya Rossiya (Russian: Свободная Россия, Free Russia) after the February Revolution of 1917.
She was evacuated from Sevastopol as German troops approached the city in May 1918, but was scuttled in Novorossiysk harbor the following month when the Germans demanded that the Soviets hand her over according to the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Svobodnaya Rossiya was only partially salvaged after the war.
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