Russian battleship Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya

A Russian stamp honoring Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya
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
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	20 Yarrow boilers 27,000 shp (20,000 kW)
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	4 × triple 12 in (305 mm) guns 18 × single 130 mm (5.1 in) guns 3 × single 75 mm (3 in) AA guns 4 × single 17.7 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Waterline belt: 4.9–10.3 in (125–262 mm) Deck: 1–2 in (25–50 mm) Turrets: 9.8 in (250 mm) Barbettes: 9.8 in (250 mm) Conning tower: 11.8 in (300 mm)

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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