I read an interesting article on the above topic. I cannot confirm the historical accuracy - not a specialist. What do you say? Everything looks reliable at the first signs.
If you read the history of Russian armored ships, you can find out, for example, that the development of a fire control system for the battleship Borodino was most entrusted to the Institute of Precision Mechanics at the court of His Imperial Highness. The machines were created by the Russian Society of Steam Power Plants. Leading research and production team, whose developments have been successfully used on warships around the world. Ivanov's guns and self-propelled mines designed by Makarov were adopted as weapons systems …
But…
All of you there on the upper deck! Stop taunting
The fire control system was French, mod. 1899. The set of instruments was first presented at an exhibition in Paris and immediately acquired for the RIF by its commander, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (according to the recollections of his relatives, le Beau Brummel, who almost permanently lived in France).
In the conning tower, horizontal base rangefinders of the Barr and Studd brand were installed. Boilers designed by Belleville were used. Searchlights Mangin. Steam pumps of the Worthington system. Martin's anchors. Ston's pumps. Medium and anti-mine guns - 152- and 75-mm Canet cannons. Rapid-fire 47 mm Hotchkiss cannons. Whitehead torpedoes.
Promotional video:
The Borodino project itself was a modified project of the Tsesarevich battleship, designed and built for the Russian Imperial Navy by specialists from the Forge and Chantier French shipyard.
In order to avoid misunderstandings and unfounded reproaches, an explanation must be made for a wide audience. The good news is that most of the foreign names in the Borodino EDR design belonged to systems manufactured under license in Russia. On the technical side, they also met the best international standards. For example, the generally accepted design of the sectional boiler of the Belleville system and the very successful cannons of Gustave Canet.
However, already one French fire control system in the Russian EBR makes one think. Why and why? It looks as ridiculous as the Aegis on the Soviet Orlan.
There are two bad news
Great empire with a population of 130 million people, with a high-quality education system (for the elite) and a developed scientific school - Mendeleev, Popov, Yablochkov. And with that all around solid foreign technologies! Where is our domestic “Belleville”? But he was an engineer-inventor V. Shukhov, an employee of the Russian branch of Babcock & Wilksos, who patented a vertical boiler of his own design.
In theory, everything was. In practice - solid Belleville, brothers Nikloss and EBR "Tsesarevich" at the shipyard "Forge and Chantier" as a model for the Russian fleet.
But, what is especially offensive, the ships at domestic shipyards were built many times slower. Four years for the EDR “Borodino” versus two and a half years for “Retvizan” (“Cram & Sans”). Now you shouldn't be like a recognizable hero and ask: “Why? Who did it?" The answer is on the surface - a lack of tools, machines, experience and skillful hands.
Another problem lies in the fact that even with “mutually beneficial cooperation” in the conditions of an “open world market” something is not observed with Makarov torpedoes in service with the French fleet. And in general, nothing is observed that would indicate a technology exchange. Everything, everything according to the old, proven scheme. We give them money and gold, they in return - their technical innovations. Belleville Cauldron. Mina Whitehead.
Speaking specifically for the fleet, even licenses were not always enough. I just had to take and place orders at foreign shipyards.
The fact that the cruiser “Varyag” was built in the USA is no longer hidden. It is much less known that the second participant of the legendary battle, the gunboat "Koreets", was built in Sweden.
Armored cruiser "Svetlana", built in Le Havre, France.
Armored cruiser "Admiral Kornilov" - Saint-Nazaire, France.
Armored cruiser "Askold" - Kiel, Germany.
Armored cruiser Boyarin - Copenhagen, Denmark.
Armored cruiser Bayan - Toulon, France.
Armored cruiser "Admiral Makarov", built at the shipyard "Forge & Chantier".
Armored cruiser "Rurik", built at the British shipyard "Barrow-inn-Furness".
Battleship Retvizan, built by Cram & Sans in Philadelphia, USA.
A series of destroyers "Kit", shipyard Friedrich Schiehau, Germany.
A series of destroyers "Trout" were built at the A. Norman plant in France.
Series "Lieutenant Burakov" - "Forge & Chantier", France.
Series of destroyers "Mechanical Engineer Zverev" - Shihau shipyard, Germany.
The lead destroyers of the Rider and Falcon series were built in Germany and, accordingly, Great Britain.
Batum - at the Yarrow shipyard in Glasgow, UK (the list is incomplete!).
The irritation is understandable. With that colossal gap in technology and labor productivity, building a series of armored cruisers is equivalent to building a modern cosmodrome. It is unprofitable and ineffective in all respects to outsource such "fat" projects to foreign contractors. This money should go to the workers of the admiralty shipyards and move the domestic economy. And together with it, develop our own science and industry. This is what everyone has strived to do at all times. Steal from profits, not losses. But this is not accepted in our country.
We did it differently. The scheme was called “to steal the ruble, harm the country by a million”. The French have a contract, they, who need it, are a kickback. Their shipyards are sitting without orders. The industry is degrading. Qualified personnel are not needed.
There was a time when they even tried to build dreadnought battleships, so it would be better not to try. During the implementation of a complex project, all the shortcomings of pre-revolutionary Russia were clearly manifested. Widespread lack of production experience, machine tools and competent specialists. Multiplied by incompetence, nepotism, kickbacks and mess in the offices of the Admiralty.
As a result, the formidable “Sevastopol” had been under construction for six years and by the time the Andreevsky flag was raised, it was completely outdated. The Empress Maria turned out to be no better. Look at their peers. Who joined them in 1915 at the same time? A case of 15-inch “Queen Elizabeth”? And then say that the author is biased.
They say there was still a mighty “Ishmael”. Or was not. The battle cruiser Izmail turned out to be an overwhelming burden for the Republic of Ingushetia. Quite a strange habit - to pass off as achievement what they did not do.
Even in peacetime, with the direct help of foreign contractors, the ships over and over again turned into long-term construction. With the cruiser, everything turned out to be even more serious. When the readiness of “Ishmael” reached 43%, Russia got involved in a war in which there was no purpose, objective benefit, and in which it was impossible to win. For “Ishmael” this was the end, since some of its mechanisms were imported from Germany.
If we talk outside of politics, the LKR “Izmail” was also not an indicator of the flourishing of the empire. In the East, dawn was already glowing. Japan stood up to its full height with its 16-inch "Nagato". One that even their British teachers were taken aback by.
As time went on, there was not much progress. From the author's point of view, industry in tsarist Russia was in complete decline. You may have a different opinion from the author's opinion, which, however, will not be easy to prove.
Go down to the engine room of the destroyer “Novik” and read what is stamped on its turbines. Come on, bring light here. Really? AG Vulkan Stettin. Deutsches Kaiserreich.
The motors did not go well from the very beginning. Climb into the nacelle of the same "Ilya Muromets". What will you see there? Engines brand "Gorynych"? Really, surprise. Renault.
Legendary royal quality
All the facts indicate that the Russian Empire was trailing somewhere at the very end of the list of developed states. After Great Britain, Germany, the United States, France and even Japan, which, having gone through the late modernization of Meiji, by the 1910s. managed to bypass RI in everything.
In general, Russia was not at all where it should be for an empire with such ambitions.
After that, jokes about “Ilyin's light bulb” and the state program for the elimination of illiteracy no longer seem so funny. Years passed, and the country was cured. Completely. It will become a state with the best education in the world, with advanced science and developed industry that could do everything. Import substitution in the most important industries (military industry, nuclear power, space) was 100%.
And the descendants of the scattered degenerates will whine for a long time in Paris about “the Russia they have lost”.
A. Dolganov
