Imperatritsa Maria (Russian: Императрица Мария) was an 84-gun third rate ship of the line built for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy in the late 1840s and early 1850s as part of a naval expansion program to strengthen the fleet during a period of increased tension with Britain and France.

The two Khrabryi-class ships of the line proved to be the culmination of a naval expansion program aimed at strengthening the Russian Black Sea Fleet during a period of increased tension with Britain and France over the decline of one of Russia's traditional enemies, the Ottoman Empire.

Beginning in the 1830s, Russia ordered a series of 84-gun ships in anticipation of a future conflict; Imperatritsa Maria was the last of these to be completed.

In October 1853, after the outbreak of the Crimean War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire that month, she carried a contingent of 939 soldiers to Sukhumi.

With the mobilization of Russian forces for the conflict, Imperatritsa Maria served as the flagship of a squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Pavel Nakhimov.

France and Britain issued an ultimatum to Russia to withdraw its forces from Rumelia, the Ottoman territories in the Balkans, which the Russians initially ignored, prompting Anglo-French declarations of war in March 1854.