Russian Battleships of the Sevastopol Class Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

Here is my first look at a title from this publisher in Poland. This title examines the history and configuration of the dreadnaught series of battleships. After the severe losses incurred on the Russian Fleet in the war with Japan in 1904-1905, the Baltic fleet found itself without capital ships. An aggressive plan was laid out to rebuild the fleet, but with the launching of the first British dreadnaught in 1906, the Russians realized that their ship designs were now obsolete.

After much political fighting within the Russian government, construction began on the four battleships in the Sevastopol class in 1909. These were the Sevastopol, Petropavlovsk, Gangut, and Poltava.

The title examines the development of the four ships before focusing upon the operational histories of these ships individually. Naturally some of the ships were renamed after the Soviet revolution, but all were modernized in different ways and served the Soviet Navy until their destruction by Germany early in the war.

The book as some excellent photography from the period to illustrate the construction, configurations and operations of the four battleships. Also included are color profiles of each of the ships on the inside front and rear covers. To round out this title, line drawings are included in 1/400 scale of each of the four battleships..

This book is a must-have for the naval historian and military analyst to get a glimpse into turn-of-the-century (20th) naval history from a point of view that has not been readily available - pre and post Soviet naval operations.

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!