Dzerzhinsky () was one of eight Fidonisy-class destroyers built for the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I. She was originally named Kaliakria () before she was renamed Dzerzhinsky in 1926.
Design and description
The Fidonisy-class ships were designed as an improved version of the with an additional gun. Kaliakria displaced normal and at full load with an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of at full load. She was propelled by two Parsons steam turbines, each driving one propeller, designed to produce a total of using steam from five 3-drum Thorneycroft boilers for an intended maximum speed of . Kaliakria was designed to carry enough fuel oil to give her a range of at . Her crew numbered 136.
The Fidonisy-class ships mounted a main armament of four single 102 mm Pattern 1911 Obukhov guns, one on the forecastle and three aft; one of these latter guns was superfiring over the other two. Unhappy with the reliability of the anti-aircraft gun originally intended to equip Kaliakria, the navy replaced them with a pair of Hotchkiss guns while the ship was still under construction in March 1917, and four Maxim machine guns. The destroyers mounted four triple torpedo tube mounts amidships with fourteen torpedoes and could carry 80 M1908 naval mines. They were also fitted with a Barr and Stroud rangefinder and two searchlights.
Construction and service
Dzerzhinsky transported a Soviet delegation headed by Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs Lev Karakhan to Istanbul for negotiations with the Turkish government on 11 December 1929. She returned to Sevastopol with the delegation aboard on 24 December after the latter signed a protocol renewing the 1925 Soviet–Turkish Treaty on Friendship and Neutrality.
World War II
Dzerzhinsky was part of the 1st Destroyer Division of the fleet at Batumi along with Frunze by 22 June 1941, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. Between 22 and 25 June she laid 240 mines off the Batumi Naval Base in four night sorties. With her sisters, she was sent to support the defenders during the Siege of Odessa due to a fleet prohibition on using large ships after the Raid on Constanța that was in effect until August, forcing the elderly Noviks to be employed. Dzerzhinsky arrived in Odessa on 20 August with a cargo of ammunition, and on the next day bombarded Dofinovka, firing 88 102 mm shells. On the thirteenth volley the elevator of one turret failed and it had to be reloaded by hand. She was attacked without result by three Heinkel He 111 bombers, one of many air attacks on the Soviet ships supporting Odessa. The destroyer escorted three transports out of Odessa on 23 August, and departed Sevastopol on 29 August escorting three transports, together with two minesweepers and three torpedo boats. Arriving at Odessa on the next day, she bombarded Fontanka, expending 200 shells. While engaged in this duty, the destroyer was attacked several times by Axis aircraft without result. After maneuvering in the Gulf of Odessa during the night, Dzerzhinsky expanded another 118 shells against Fontanka and other Axis positions during the next day, and left Odessa that night with a tugboat that towed two barges. The slow speed of the latter forced the destroyer to travel at , delaying her return to Sevastopol until 2 September.
Dzerzhinsky departed Sevastopol for Odessa on 6 September with a 140-man partisan detachment aboard. Arriving the next day, she found the port under Axis artillery fire. In the evening she expended 56 shells against coastal targets and maneuvered at sea during the night. Another 90 shells were fired against coastal targets on the next morning, and she continued maneuvering that day despite the failure of a turbogenerator. Early on 9 September, she entered Odessa to replenish her supplies of fuel and potable water, but fragments from near misses of artillery shells damaged a gun and her torpedo tubes. As there was no fuel in the port, Dzerzhinsky departed under her own smokescreen and fired a volley at an Axis battery. She spent the rest of the day maneuvering off the Vorontsov Lighthouse and departed that night, escorting a transport evacuating the wounded together with a minesweeper. The destroyer arrived at Sevastopol on 10 September, almost out of fuel and having no potable water remaining.