Andrei Pervozvanny-class battleship

Postcard of Imperator Pavel I underway with original cage masts
Class overview
Operators:	Imperial Russian Navy  Soviet Navy
Preceded by:	Borodino class
Succeeded by:	Gangut class
Built:	1904–11
In service:	1911–19
In commission:	1911–24
Planned:	2
Completed:	2
Scrapped:	2
General characteristics as built
Type:	Predreadnought battleship
Displacement:	17,320 long tons (17,600 t) 18,580 long tons (18,880 t) deep load
Length:	460 ft 0 in (140.2 m)
Beam:	80 ft 0 in (24.38 m)
Draught:	27 ft 0 in (8.23 m)
Installed power:	17,600 ihp (13,100 kW) 25 coal-fired Belleville boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, 2 Vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph)
Range:	2,100 nmi (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	956
Armament:	2 twin 12-inch (305 mm) guns 4 twin, 6 single 8-inch (203 mm) guns 12 single 120 mm (4.7 in) guns 2 single 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 4–8.5 in (102–216 mm) Upper belt: 3.1–5 in (79–127 mm) Casemates: 3.1–5 in (79–127 mm) Conning tower: 4–8 in (102–203 mm) Main gun turrets: 8–10 in (203–254 mm) Main gun barbettes: 4–5 in (102–127 mm) Secondary gun turrets: 5–6 in (127–152 mm)

The Andrey Pervozvanny class were a pair of predreadnought battleships built in the mid-1900s for the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. They were conceived by the Naval Technical Committee in 1903 as an incremental development of the Borodino-class battleships with increased displacement and heavier secondary armament. Work on the lead ship, Andrey Pervozvanny (Saint Andrew), commenced at the New Admiralty, Saint Petersburg in March 1904; Imperator Pavel I trailed by six months.

The disastrous experiences of the Russo-Japanese War led to countless redesigns, change orders and delays in construction. After the completion of Andrey Pervozvanny its builders identified seventeen distinct stages of her design. Andrey Pervozvanny was launched in October 1906 but subsequent alterations delayed completion until 1911. Almost all of her hull was armored, albeit thinly; redesign and refinement of protective armor continued until 1912. The ship's artillery mixed novel quick-firing long range 8-inch guns with obsolescent 12-inch 40 caliber main guns. The Andrey Pervozvanny-class battleships became the only battleships of the Old World fitted with lattice masts, which were replaced with conventional masts at the beginning of World War I. The imposing ships, the largest in the Russian Navy until the completion of the Gangut-class dreadnoughts, were obsolete from the start: by the time of their sea trials the Royal Navy had already launched the Orion-class super-dreadnoughts.