The ship used the same main armament as the preceding Imperatritsa Mariya class, but was larger and more heavily armored.

Imperator Nikolai I was designed in response to efforts by the Ottoman Empire to acquire modern dreadnoughts from abroad.

A modified version of that class would be the quickest to put into service and the preliminary design work began in December of that year, well before she was formally ordered on 12 September 1914.

The double bottom was 1.2 meters (3 ft 11 in) deep and she was given an ice-breaking bow, probably in the hopes that she'd be able to operate outside the Black Sea.

20 mixed-firing triangular Yarrow water-tube boilers powered the turbines with a working pressure of 17.5 atm (257 psi).

[4] Her main armament consisted of a dozen 12-inch Pattern 1907 52-caliber guns mounted in four triple turrets distributed the length of the ship.

These guns were identical to those used in the Imperatritsa Mariya-class ships, but the turrets were modified to improve the rate of fire.

The guns fired 470.9-kilogram (1,038 lb) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 762 m/s (2,500 ft/s); this provided a maximum range of 23,230 meters (25,400 yd).

Three guns per side were situated to fire ahead as that was the most likely direction of attack by torpedo boats as anticipated by the Naval General Staff.

The plates were sized to match the frames to provide support for their joints and they were joined together to better distribute the shock of a shell's impact.

The 75 millimeters (3.0 in) upper belt ran from the bow back to the aft turret and was 2.95 meters (9 ft 8 in) high.

Underwater protection was minimal as there was only 10-millimeter (0.39 in) watertight bulkhead behind the upwards extension of the double bottom and even this was squeezed out as the hull narrowed towards the end turrets.

However, workers were diverted to more important projects and war production began to interfere with deliveries of material beginning shortly afterwards which delayed her launch until on 18 October 1916.

Several proposals were evaluated while she was building to modify her in light of the issues demonstrated by the Imperatritsa Mariya-class in service.

Work on her continued at a slow rate through the February Revolution of 1917, but the unsettled times disrupted her construction and further delayed her.

Industrial unrest and strikes further slowed progress and the provisional government postponed further work on 24 October 1917 until "a more favorable time".

On 27 January 1919 she was mentioned at Directorate Navy Ministry order at the list for renaming from 1920 – into Soborna Ukraina (Russian: Соборна Украина: Union of Ukraine).

Efforts were made to sell the hull abroad to raise hard currency, but when these came to nought she was towed to Sevastopol on 28 June 1927 to begin dismantling.