Dvenadsat Apostolov, laid down in 1889 and commissioned in 1893, illustrates Russia's continued use of individual designs and transitional barbette arrangements. Its paired barbettes and turrets also show why the boundary between ironclads and pre-dreadnoughts did not hold consistently. By 1892, however, Russia had laid down the three Petropavlovsk-class ships as a group. Russia thus moved toward standardized class construction before France did. Fleet value depended on how readily those ships could operate together, as well as how many appeared on a service list.
Notable Point · 19:33-21:20
Russia moved from one-off battleships toward classes
Russian construction also began with individual designs but reached a standardized battleship class before France did.