The ship was sunk during the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 due to explosions set off by a Japanese shell hitting a magazine.

The Borodino-class ships were based on the design of the French-built Tsesarevich, modified to suit Russian equipment and building practices.

They produced, however, only 15,012 ihp (11,194 kW) on Borodino's builder's sea trials on 23 August 1904 and gave an average speed of 16.2 knots (30 km/h; 19 mph).

The ships could carry enough coal to give them a range of 2,590 nautical miles (4,800 km; 2,980 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[3] The main battery of the Borodinos consisted of four 12-inch (305 mm) Pattern 1895 guns were mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure.

Their secondary armament of twelve 6-inch (152 mm) Pattern 1892 guns were mounted in six twin-gun turrets carried on the upper deck.

The 1.5-inch (38 mm) armored lower deck of Borodino and her sister Imperator Aleksandr III curved downwards to their double bottom and formed an anti-torpedo bulkhead.

[9] On 15 October 1904, Borodino set sail for Port Arthur from Libau along with the other vessels of the Second Pacific Squadron, under the overall command of Vice admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky.

[13] Rozhestvensky decided to take the most direct route to Vladivostok using the Tsushima Strait and was intercepted by the Japanese battlefleet under the command of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō on 27 May 1905.

[17] Knyaz Suvorov suffered multiple hits early in the battle, some of which wounded Rozhestvensky and jammed the ship's steering so that she fell out of formation.