She was in her time the very first Russian turret, steam-only battleship, a fad pioneered by France and Great Britain. The Petr Veliki (Peter the Great) was arguably the oldest Russian battleship in service at the time. See the 1898 Russian fleet records for more. In 1867 this was compounded by the construction of two relatively close turret ships, the Charodeika class, and the Admiral Lazaref and Admiral Chigalov classes (all were retired in 1907), followed by probably the most amazing coast defense ships ever imagined at that time: The Novgorod and the larger Vice-Admiral Popov, low-freeboard and with a circular hull, designed both for the black sea fleet. The 1860s saw a need for coastal defense through a type of ship inspired by the current American civil war: Monitors: The ten Bronenosetz class (1864) were followed by Smerch, a low freeboard turret armored ship very similar to the Danish Rolf Krake, also in 1864. She became also the oldest ship in the Russian Navy in 1914. She was followed by an armoured cruiser of such tonnage she was reclassified as an ironclad, and first Russian turret ship, very fast at that: Minin (1869). It was not long before the technology swapped to the Kniaz Pojarski, her first central battery ship. Small coastal ironclads followed (Pervenetz class) ordered for the first in UK in 1862 and built in Russia for her two sister-ships, in 1863-64. Sevastopol sister-ship, Petropavlovsk mostly diverged by her battery. It started with two conventional frigates which were converted in 1864, basically the same story that happened with the French Gloire. WW1 Russian Battleships Russian Empire (1875-1919) - About 50 ships The origins: From ironclads to Coast Defense ships Historically, Russia embraced ironclad technology as soon as it was available, but the development of the first ship, Sevastopol, took some time, after the Crimean War.
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