Soviet destroyer Karl Marx

History
Russian Empire
Name	Izyaslav (Изяслав)
Builder	Böcker and Lange, Reval, Estonia
Laid down	1913
Launched	1914
Completed	1916
Soviet Union
Acquired	1918
Commissioned	1922
Renamed	Karl Marx (Карл Маркс), 1922
Fate	Sunk by German aircraft, 8 August 1941
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Izyaslav-class destroyer
Displacement	1,350 long tons (1,370 t)
Length	99.1 m (325 ft 2 in)
Beam	9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
Draught	3 m (9 ft 10 in)
Installed power	5 boilers 25,500 shp (19,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 steam turbines
Speed	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Complement	150
Armament	5 × single 102 mm (4 in) guns 1 × single 76 mm (3 in) AA gun 3 × triple 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes 60 mines

Izyaslav (Russian: Изяслав) was the lead ship of her class of five destroyers built for the Russian Imperial Navy during the 1910s. Completed during 1916, she served with the Baltic Fleet during the remainder of the First World War, and after the October Revolution joined the Bolshevik Red Fleet. She was active during the Russian Civil War, taking part in several engagements against British ships during the British campaign in the Baltic. The destroyer was renamed Karl Marx (Russian: Карл Маркс) in 1922. She played a small role in the Winter War with the Soviet Baltic Fleet when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), and was sunk by German aircraft on 8 August 1941.

Design and description

Ordered from Böcker and Lange's shipyard in Reval, Estonia, in the 1912 naval program, the Izyaslav-class destroyers were improved versions of the preceding <i>Leytenant Ilyin</i> class with a heavier armament.

Bibliography

• Breyer, Siegfried (1992). Soviet Warship Development: Volume 1: 1917–1937. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-604-3.
• Budzbon, Przemysław (1985). "Russia". In Gray, Randal (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 291–325. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Budzbon, Przemysław (1980). "Soviet Union". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 318–346. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Budzbon, Przemysław; Radziemski, Jan & Twardowski, Marek (2022). Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939–1945. Vol. I: Major Combatants. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-877-6.
• Hill, Alexander (2018). Soviet Destroyers of World War II. New Vanguard. Vol. 256. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-2256-7.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Watts, Anthony J. (1990). The Imperial Russian Navy. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 0-85368-912-1.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.

This page was last edited on 23 February 2024, at 16:19