On May 24, 1900, the first two battleships of the Borodino class were laid down in St. Petersburg, which became the legends of the Tsushima battle
The Russian fleet, through the efforts of Emperor Alexander III by the end of the 19th century, had turned into one of the largest military fleets in the world, experienced a real shipbuilding boom on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War. The rate of increase in the number of ships taken during the years of Alexander's rule, the emergence of new projects and the expansion of the classification of the Russian Imperial Navy were preserved under the heir of the famous tsar - Emperor Nicholas II. It was under him that the Russian sailors received serious submarine forces, it was under him that a radical change in the structure and capabilities of the fleet ended. Under him, the largest series of battleships of the era of the armored fleet - battleships of the Borodino class - was laid in Russia. The first two ships of the project - the Borodino itself and the Emperor Alexander III - were laid down on May 24 (11 according to the old style) at two St. Petersburg shipyards at once: the New Admiralty and the Baltic Shipyard, respectively.
Both at the time of the laying, and at the time of entry into service in 1903-1904, the ships of the "Borodino" type were among the most modern and perfect not only in the Russian fleet, but also in comparison with the fleets of other powers. The basis for the creation of the "Borodino" project was the battleship "Tsesarevich", designed and built for Russia in France. From it, the Borodino-class battleships inherited the location of the main caliber artillery - 305 mm - in two two-gun turrets on the tank and on the poop, while the smaller-caliber guns - 152 mm (12 guns), 75 mm (20 guns) and 45 mm (20 guns) were positioned somewhat differently, trying to provide them with the largest sector of fire. The ships of the "Borodino" type were also distinguished by more powerful armor: they had two solid armor belts, the lower of which had a thickness of 203 mm, and the upper one - 152 mm. In fact, like the Tsesarevich, the battleships of the Borodino series were the first ships of this class in the world to be protected along the entire waterline by two continuous rows of armor plates.
The actual father of the Borodino-class battleships was the chief naval engineer of the St. Petersburg seaport Dmitry Skvortsov. It was he who was instructed by the Marine Technical Committee, based on the French project of the battleship "Tsesarevich", to create a new project, calculated on the capabilities of domestic shipyards and the use of almost exclusively Russian materials and mechanisms. Moreover, Skvortsov was instructed to "adhere to the idea of a draft design" of French shipbuilders and maintain "speed, draft, artillery, armor and fuel reserve at 5500 miles", albeit with an allowable "slight increase in displacement."
Dmitry Skvortsov, who by this time was already working on the construction of such ships as the coastal defense battleship "Admiral Ushakov" and the same type "General-Admiral Apraksin", coped with the task in just 20 days! And he coped brilliantly, I must say. Despite the fact that the armor thickness of the Borodino-class battleships was slightly less than that of the Tsarevich, their internal design became more original and guaranteed better resistance and survivability. In addition, due to the insignificant - only 5 mm! - reducing the thickness of the armor "Borodino" and other ships of this project received 75-mm artillery protected by armor: it was placed in an armored casemate, closed from above with 32-mm armor and separated by 25-mm armored bulkheads. In addition, ships of this type were divided by transverse watertight bulkheads, which ensured unsinkability, into 11 main compartments: ram, bow tanks compartment, bow ammunition compartment, bow auxiliary ammunition compartment, first and second stoker compartments, engine compartment, aft auxiliary caliber ammunition compartment, aft turret compartment with ammunition for the main caliber, a compartment for the steering gear and mechanisms, and a tiller compartment.
Model of the battleship "Borodino" 1901. Photo: From the funds of the TsVMM
Despite the fact that during the approval of the project of the Borodino-class battleships, and especially during the construction of the series, current changes were constantly made to the drawings and documentation, as a result, all five battleships - Borodino, Emperor Alexander III, Eagle "," Prince Suvorov "and" Glory "- turned out to be very good ships. Although the construction and operational overload, due to which the battleships were not fast enough and maneuverable, unfortunately, became one of the reasons that in real battle these "real sea giants", as the Russian newspapers of the time called them, were defeated in the Battle of Tsushima. … It was attended by four battleships - all ships of the "Borodino" series that participated in the Russo-Japanese War; the fifth, "Slava", did not have time to go to the Far East.
Of the four battleships that were part of the 2nd Pacific Squadron and took part in the Battle of Tsushima, three - "Borodino", "Emperor Alexander III" and "Prince Suvorov" - were killed. These squadron battleships, which were the newest ships of this type in the Russian fleet at that time, formed the core of the 1st armored detachment. The squadron commander, Vice-Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, held his flag on the Suvorov, and it was this battleship that led the column. Japanese ships opened fire on it first. And in the end, three handsome battleships, to the last resisted the enemy and responded to the Japanese shells with their own, having fulfilled their duty, went to the bottom without lowering the Andreevsky flag. Together with them, all the members of their crews perished: only one sailor from among those who served on the battleship Borodino managed to escape. As for the "Eagle", Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov handed it over to the Japanese along with other ships of the 2nd squadron that remained in service. They rebuilt and modernized the ship, and it served under the name "Iwami" until 1924, when it was shot as a target ship by Japanese aircraft.
"Eagle" outlived all of its comrades in the project. After the death of three other battleships of the series in the Battle of Tsushima, only the battleship Slava remained in service in the Russian fleet. Launched in 1905, it simply did not have time for the Russo-Japanese War and remained in the Baltic. He took part in the defense of the Gulf of Riga in 1915, in 1916 he underwent repairs and modernization, and in October 1917 he took part in the Battle of Moonsund. This was the last for "Slava": due to the damage received in the battle, the ship practically lost its speed and was sunk at the entrance to the Moonsund Canal.
And yet, despite the fact that the service of almost all squadron battleships of the Borodino class was short-lived and not to say happy, this project will forever remain in the history of the Russian fleet and Russian shipbuilding. After all, the experience gained by domestic shipbuilders in the design and construction of these unique ships, and by Russian sailors during combat service, turned out to be invaluable. Although neither one nor the other managed to fully apply it: the troubled revolutionary times came too quickly, and at the end of the era, the era of battleships actually came to an end. And yet "Borodino", "Emperor Alexander III", "Eagle", "Prince Suvorov" and "Glory" managed to write their glorious page into it.
