Having escaped serious damage in these engagements, Pobeda was sunk by gunfire during the siege of Port Arthur, and then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into service under the name Suwo (周防).

She was the flagship of the Japanese squadron that participated in the siege of Qingdao at the beginning of World War I and continued in that role until she became a gunnery training ship in 1917.

The engines were rated at 14,500 indicated horsepower (10,800 kW), using forced draught, and designed to reach a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

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

The secondary armament consisted of eleven Canet 6-inch (152 mm) quick-firing (QF) guns, mounted in casemates on the sides of the hull and in the bow, underneath the forecastle.

[3] Pobeda (Victory)[4] was ordered on 26 April 1898 from the Baltic Works and construction began on 30 May 1898 at the company's Saint Petersburg shipyard, well before the formal keel-laying ceremony on 21 February 1899.

She sailed to Reval (modern Tallinn) on 1 August to participate in the naval review held there a few days later to commemorate the visit of the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, to Russia.

Pobeda entered service upon completing her artillery trials in October 1902, although she was not officially accepted until 10 March 1903,[5] at a cost of 10,050,000 rubles.

Japan had begun negotiations to ease the situation in 1901, but the Russian government was slow and uncertain in its replies because it had not yet decided exactly how to resolve the problems.

The Pacific Squadron began mooring in the outer harbor at night as tensions with Japan increased, so as to react more quickly to any Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea.

Pobeda was hit once or twice amidships near the waterline, losing two men killed and four wounded, but the shell(s) failed to penetrate the ship's armor and little damage was done.

[10] She participated in the action of 13 April, when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, the battleship Petropavlovsk.

[10] The Japanese bombardment of 9 August, coupled with a direct order from Tsar Nicholas II, forced Vitgeft to make another attempt to reach Vladivostok.

Around 18:00, two 12-inch shells from the battleship Asahi penetrated the conning tower of the Russian flagship Tsesarevich, killing Vitgeft and the helmsman, severely wounding the captain, and causing the ship to come to a dead stop after executing a sharp turn.

[10] Returning to Port Arthur on 11 August, the Russian squadron found the city still under siege by the Japanese Third Army led by Baron Nogi Maresuke.

This allowed the Imperial Japanese Army's 28-centimeter (11 in) siege guns to fire directly at the Russian ships; they hit Pobeda approximately 30 times and sank her in shallow water on 7 December 1904.

The squadron was tasked to blockade the German-owned port of Qingdao, China, and to cooperate with the Imperial Japanese Army in capturing the city.