The Admiral Lazarev class was a pair of monitors built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the late 1860s, which designated them as armored turret frigates.

By late 1863, the Russian Admiralty Board had begun planning for the second generation of ironclads to succeed those ships then under construction.

The British shipbuilder Charles Mitchell submitted four different designs for the coastal defense vessels, two broadside ironclads and two turret ships.

The additional weight was offset by increasing the height of the hull by 12 inches (305 mm) which also deepened the ships' draft.

The second change occurred after new 8-inch (203 mm) rifled guns were able to penetrate a replica of the armor scheme in June 1866.

The Admiralty Board decided to significantly thicken the armor of all four ships and remove one gun turret to compensate for the weight of the extra armor in November, but Admiral Lazarev and Admiral Grieg were too far advanced to make the change and only the other two ships were modified.

The engine was designed to produce a total of 2,020 indicated horsepower (1,510 kW) which gave the ships speeds between 9.54–10.4 knots (17.67–19.26 km/h; 10.98–11.97 mph) when they ran their initial sea trials in 1871.

The monitors also had a donkey boiler for the small steam engine that powered the ventilation fans and pumps.

The Admiral Lazarev class carried 260 long tons (264 t) of coal which gave them a range of about 1,200–1,500 nautical miles (2,200–2,800 km; 1,400–1,700 mi) at a speed of 9 knots.

The guns fired 269–273-pound (122–124 kg) shells with a maximum muzzle velocity of 1,400 feet per second (440 m/s) that gave them a range of 4,051 yards (3,704 m).

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, a 9-inch mortar was fitted to attack the thin deck armor of enemy ships, but accuracy was poor and they were later removed, probably in the early 1880s.

[8] After launching, the sisters were transferred to Kronstadt for fitting out as the shallow waters around Saint Petersburg prevented deep-draft ships from being completed.

By this time, their role in Russian war plans was to defend the Gulf of Riga against an anticipated German amphibious landing.