Dreadnought Battleships: Imperatritsa Mariya Class

[Brian James]

Battleship Volya (Ex IRN Imperator Aleksandr III ) pictured in the South Bay at Sevastopol in 1918.
IRN Imperator Aleksandr III (Emperor Alexander III) was the third, and last, ship of the Imperatritsa Mariya Class Dreadnoughts of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was built at Russud Shipyards at Nikolayev in 1911 and completed in 1917 and saw service with the Black Sea Fleet. She was renamed Volia or Volya before her completion and then General Alekseyev in 1920. The ship did not take part in operations during World War I because her sister ships were given a higher priority for completion. She was delivered in 1917, but the disruptions of the February Revolution rendered the Black Sea Fleet ineffective and she saw no combat.
Volya was surrendered to the Germans in 1918, but they were forced to turn her over to the British by the terms of the Armistice. The British turned her over to the White Russians in 1919 and they used her to help evacuate the Crimea in 1920. She was interned in Bizerte by the French and ultimately scrapped by them in 1936 to pay her docking fees. Her guns were put into storage and were later used by the Germans and Finns for coastal artillery during World War II. The Finns and the Soviets continued to use them throughout the Cold War.