The Peresvet class was a group of three pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy around the end of the 19th century.

Oslyabya, the third ship, sailed to the Far East with the Second Pacific Squadron to relieve the Russian forces blockaded in Port Arthur and was sunk at the Battle of Tsushima with the loss of over half her crew.

Peresvet was sold back to the Russians during World War I, as the two countries were by now allies, and sank after hitting German mines in the Mediterranean in early 1917 while Pobeda, renamed Suwo, remained instead in Japanese service and participated in the Battle of Tsingtao in late 1914.

After the humiliating Russian defeat during the Crimean War of 1854–55, General Admiral Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich understood that Russia would never be able to outbuild Britain or France, but still needed a maritime strategy that could defend Russia, give the fleet a useful role in peacetime and act as a deterrent.

This role placed a premium on high speed and long range at the expense of heavy armament and armor.

The engines were rated at 14,500 indicated horsepower (10,813 kW), using forced draft, and designed to reach a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

All three ships slightly exceeded their specifications and reached top speeds of 18.3–18.5 knots (33.9–34.3 km/h; 21.1–21.3 mph) from 14,532–15,578 indicated horsepower (10,837–11,617 kW) during their sea trials.

They carried a maximum of 2,060 long tons (2,090 t) of coal which allowed them to steam for 6,200 nautical miles (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[5] The ships' main battery consisted of four 45-caliber, 10-inch (254 mm) guns mounted in electrically powered twin-gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure.

[7] The secondary armament of the Peresvet-class ships consisted of eleven 45-caliber, 6-inch Canet Model 1891 quick-firing (QF) guns, 10 mounted in casemates on the sides of the hull and one underneath the forecastle as a bow chaser.

The gunnery officer consulted his references to get the range and calculated the proper elevation and deflection required to hit the target.

Oslyabya and the rest of the Second Pacific Squadron were also fitted with Perepelkin telescopic sights for their guns, but their crews were not trained in how to use them.

Upon her arrival, Peresvet became the flagship of the squadron's second-in-command, Rear Admiral Prince Pavel Ukhtomsky.

She was ordered home and assigned to the Second Pacific Squadron that was intended to relieve the forces in Port Arthur.

The ship served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Baron Dmitry von Fölkersam, second-in-command of the squadron, but he died two days before the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905.

Efforts to counteract the resulting list destroyed her remaining stability and she sank just over an hour after the Japanese opened fire—the first modern battleship to be sunk solely by gunfire.

They incorporated the refurbished vessels into the Imperial Japanese Navy as Sagami and Suwo, respectively, and reclassified them as first-class coastal defense ships.

[24] After the beginning of World War I in 1914, Sagami was sold to Russia in March 1916 and arrived in Vladivostok on 3 April 1916, where she resumed her former name of Peresvet.

The mines, laid by the German submarine SM U-73, sank Peresvet with the loss of 167 lives after she had caught fire.

[25] During World War I Suwo served as the flagship for the Japanese squadron during the siege of Tsingtao from 27 August to 7 November 1914.