Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1911)

Petropavlovsk at Helsinki
History
Russian Empire
Name	Petropavlovsk
Namesake	Siege of Petropavlovsk
Builder	Baltic Works, Saint Petersburg
Laid down	16 June 1909[Note 1]
Launched	22 September 1911
Commissioned	5 January 1915
Soviet Union
Name	Marat (1921–1943) Petropavlovsk (1943–1950) Volkhov (1950–1953)
Namesake	Jean-Paul Marat (1921–1943) Siege of Petropavlovsk (1943–1950) Volkhov River (1950–1953)
Acquired	November 1917
Renamed	Marat 31 March 1921 Petropavlovsk 31 May 1943 Volkhov 28 November 1950
Stricken	4 September 1953
Fate	Sunk in September 1941 and never fully repaired, scrapped after September 1953
General characteristics
Class and type	Gangut-class battleship
Displacement	24,800 tonnes (24,408 long tons)
Length	181.2 m (594 ft 6 in)
Beam	26.9 m (88 ft 3 in)
Draft	8.99 m (29 ft 6 in)
Installed power	52,000 shp (38,776 kW) (on trials)
Propulsion	4-shaft Parsons steam turbines 25 Yarrow boilers
Speed	24.1 knots (44.6 km/h; 27.7 mph) (on trials)
Range	3,200 nautical miles (5,900 km; 3,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	1,149
Armament	4 × triple 12 in (305 mm) guns 16 × single 4.7 in (120 mm) guns 1 × single 3 in (76 mm) AA gun 4 × 17.7 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Waterline belt: 125–225 mm (4.9–8.9 in) Deck: 12–50 mm (0.47–1.97 in) Turrets: 76–203 mm (3.0–8.0 in) Barbettes: 75–150 mm (3.0–5.9 in) Conning tower: 100–254 mm (3.9–10.0 in)

Petropavlovsk (Russian: Петропавловск) was the third of the four Gangut-class dreadnoughts built before World War I for the Imperial Russian Navy, the first Russian class of dreadnoughts. She was named after the Russian victory in the siege of Petropavlovsk during the Crimean War. The ship was completed during the winter of 1914–1915, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for minelaying operations. Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet after the February Revolution of 1917 and she was the only dreadnought available to the Bolsheviks for several years after the October Revolution of 1917. She bombarded the mutinous garrison of Fort Krasnaya Gorka and supported Bolshevik light forces operating against British ships supporting the White Russians in the Gulf of Finland in 1918–1919. Later, her crew joined the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921 and she was renamed Marat after the rebellion was crushed.

Marat was reconstructed from 1928 to 1931 and represented the Soviet Union at the Coronation Naval Review at Spithead in 1937. Two years later, she bombarded a Finnish coastal artillery position during the Winter War once before the Gulf of Finland iced up. Shortly afterwards, her anti-aircraft armament was upgraded. When the Germans invaded on 22 June 1941 she was in Kronstadt and provided gunfire support to Soviet troops in September as the Germans approached Leningrad. Later that month she had her bow blown off and sank in shallow water after two hits by 1,000-kilogram (2,200 lb) bombs (dropped by two Ju 87 Stukas, one of which was piloted by Hans Ulrich Rudel) that detonated her forward magazine. The remaining rear section was refloated several months later and became a stationary artillery battery, providing gunfire support during the siege of Leningrad. Marat resumed her original name in 1943 and plans were made to reconstruct her after the war, using the bow of her sister Frunze, but they were not accepted and were formally cancelled in 1948. Petropavlovsk was renamed Volkhov in 1950, after the nearby Volkhov River, and served as a stationary training ship until stricken in 1953 and broken up afterwards.
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