Russian battleship Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya

A Russian stamp honoring Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya
History
Russian Empire
NameImperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya (Императрица Екатерина Великая (Empress Catherine the Great))
NamesakeCatherine the Great
OperatorImperial Russian Navy
BuilderONZiV Shipyard, Nikolayev
Laid down30 October 1911[Note 1]
Launched6 June 1914
Commissioned18 October 1915
RenamedSvobodnaya Rossiia (Свободная Россия (Free Russia)), 29 April 1917
Russian SFSR
NameSvobodnaya Rossiia
OperatorRed Fleet
AcquiredNovember 1917
FateScuttled, 18 June 1918
General characteristics
Class and typeImperatritsa Mariya-class battleship
Displacement24,644 long tons (25,039 t)
Length556 ft (169.5 m) (waterline)
Beam92 ft (28 m)
Draft28 ft 7 in (8.7 m)
Installed power
Propulsion4 shafts; 4 steam turbines
Speed21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range1,680 nautical miles (3,110 km; 1,930 mi) at 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Complement1,154
Armament
Armor

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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