Iconic ships of the Imperial Russian/Soviet Navy.

With Soviet ships slated to be coming in a future update, I decided to have a little look around the web, to see what I could dig up on this nation's elusive navy. With the major and most talked about powers of America and Japan already in the game, I am making a few predictions of certain ships that could be seen with introduction of the Soviet Navy or perhaps, at a latter date. Purchasing the Gremyashchy a while ago, hasn't helped in the curiosity department either.

First, Destroyers....

When the Imperial Russian Destroyer Novik was first commissioned in 1913, the claim was made that she was the fastest ship in the world. During her sea trials, she averaged 36.3kts. Not only was she the first oil, not coal, powered destroyer built in Russia, she was also the blueprint for four other destroyer classes, 52 ships in all, with slight differences to set them apart from each other.

Like the Cruiser Aurora in 1917, the Novik switched to the Bolshevik side during the Revolution and was renamed the Yakov Sverdlov in 1923. During World War Two, the Novik would strike a German mine near Cape Juminda in August of 1941 and sink.

Cruisers.

It would have been all too easy just to repeat the description of the ingame Aurora Cruiser here, but I decided on a different route. 

The Kirov was the lead ship of her class, with five sister ships and the most modern Soviet ships when World War Two broke out, in 1939. Despite being trapped in Leningrad during the siege named after the city, later bombed, sunk and raised, Kirov would survive the war, along with all of her sisters.For the last thirteen years of her life, Kirov would serve as a training ship for Soviet Navy cadets, finally scrapped in 1974, just prior to the laying of the keel to the next nuclear powered Kirov.

Battleships.

 

Thought I was going to bring up the Battleship Potemkin? Sorry, that would have been too obvious, instead I went with this ship. The Gangut was both the lead ship of her line, but also one of the last Imperial Russian battleships to be built. Entering service in early 1915, she saw very little action in the Baltic. As with most Russian ships during 1917, joined the Bolshevik side and changed her name to Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya in 1918. The interwar years brought about many modernizations, which proved their worth during World War Two.

Despite taking heavy bombing damage, Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya would take part in three major operations of 1944, the Siege of Leningrad, the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive, and the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. Three of the four ships of the Gangut, also known as the "Sevastopol class" would survive the war, the Poltava, later renamed Frunze, had her career ended in 1919 after fire broke in her forward boiler room.

 Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya would become a training school in 1954 and ordered scrapped by 1956.

Aircraft Carriers. 

Sadly, both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union didn't produce an Aircraft Carrier in their respective time periods, covered within World of Warships.

Project 71 from 1938, a proposed light carrier very similar to the British Colossus class, and Project 72 from 1943, a proposed heavy carrier mirroring the American Essex class, never proceeded beyond the preliminary design and study phases.

preliminary sketches and studies

preliminary sketches and studies

preliminary sketches and studies

preliminary sketches and studies

preliminary sketches and studies

1938, a proposed light carrier similar British Colossus-class light carriers.(a light aircraft carrier with 45 planes) and Project 72 (a heavy aircraft carrier with 62 planes)