She was renamed Volia or Volya (Russian: Вóля, Freedom) before her completion and then General Alekseyev (Генерал Алексеев) in 1920.

[3] Imperator Aleksandr III was fitted with four Parsons-type steam turbines imported from John Brown & Company of the United Kingdom.

Then her priority was reduced after the start of World War I to concentrate efforts on her more advanced sister ships to complete them more quickly.

Imperator Aleksandr III was launched on 15 April 1914, but did not arrive at Sevastopol for fitting out until 17 July 1917, by which time the ship had been renamed Volia (Russian: Воля, Freedom).

By this time the Black Sea Fleet was totally ineffective as a result of the political situation after the February Revolution and Volia did not see any combat.

While at Novorossiysk she received an order to scuttle on 19 June 1918, but the majority of the crew (933 versus 640) voted not to do so and they decided to return to Sevastopol.

[7] Less than a month later the Germans were forced to turn her over to the British on 24 November in accordance with the Armistice when a party from the light cruiser HMS Canterbury took charge of her.

[8] On 29 October 1919 she was sailed back to Sevastopol by a crew from the battleship HMS Iron Duke and turned over to the White Russians on 1 November.

Negotiations to sell her to the Soviet Union fell through and she was sold for scrap in the late 1920s to pay her docking costs although she was not actually broken up until 1936.

Of the twelve main guns, eight made it to Finland, while four were seized by Germany when it invaded Norway in April 1940 and captured them on board SS Nina in Narvik harbor.

One gun turret is now a memorial at Isosaari while the remaining spare barrel is preserved at the Finnish Coast Artillery Museum at Kuivasaari.