[1] The series is named after Borodino village, and the ships themselves are notable for their size, power, and use in the Russo-Japanese War and the Bolshevik Revolution.

The ships were built between 1911 and 1917 at the Kolomenskiy shipyard for Caucasus and Mercury primarily for passenger service, although some also performed postal work.

[1] During the Bolshevik Civil War, the Borodino class ships were used as troop transports in service with the Red Army.

One of the ships was temporarily the flagship of an ad-hoc war fleet, mostly of other retrofitted river craft and fishing vessels.

[2] In World War II a few of the ships were used to evacuate people and wounded soldiers from Stalingrad, but most were tasked with carrying valuable equipment and material back away from the German front towards the interior of the Soviet Union.