After the Russo-Japanese War the battle fleets of Russia were entirely dissipated, so that when the present conflict came she had no ships which might have been accounted worthy aids to the navies of England and France. In so far as is known, her heaviest ships were the _Andrei Pervozvannyi_ and the _Imperator Pavel I_, each displacing only 17,200 tons, and of the design of 1911.
Against these fighting naval forces of the allied powers were ranged the navies of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The former had, at the outbreak of hostilities, 36 battleships, 5 battle cruisers, 9 armored cruisers, and 48 cruisers. Instead of giving attention to torpedo boats she gave it to destroyers, of which she had 130. And of submarines she had 27.
In detail her naval forces consisted, first, of the _Kaiser Friedrich III_, _Kaiser Karl der Grosse_, _Kaiser Barbarossa_, _Kaiser Wilhelm II_, and _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, all built as a result of the first agitation of Von Tirpitz, between the years 1898 and 1901. They each displaced 10,614 tons, had a speed of 18 knots, required 13,000 horsepower, were protected with from 10 to 12 inches of armor, and carried four 9.4-inch guns, fourteen of 5.9 inches, twelve of 3.4-inches, and twenty of smaller measurement. Roughly they corresponded to the British ships of the _Canopus_ class, both in design and time of launching.
Following this class came that of the _Wittelsbach_, including also the _Wettin_, _Zähringen_, _Mecklenburg_, and _Schwaben_, built between 1901 and 1903, displacing 11,643 tons, making 18 knots, protected with from 9 to 10 inches of armor and carrying a primary battery of four 9.4-inch guns, eighteen 5.9-inch guns, and a large secondary battery. The similar type in the British navy was the _Canopus_--for England was far ahead of Germany, both in the matter of displacement and primary battery. During the same years England had launched ships of the type of the _Implacable_.
In 1904 came the German ships _Hessen_, _Elsass_, and _Braunschweig_, and in 1905 and 1906 the _Preussen_ and _Lothringen_. They were well behind the English ships of the same years, for they displaced only 12,097 tons, made 18 knots, carried armor of from 9 to 10 inches in thickness, and a primary battery of four 11-inch guns, fourteen 6.7-inch guns, and twelve 3.4-inch guns, together with rapid firers and other guns in a secondary battery. England at this time was putting 12-inch guns in the primary battery of such ships as the _King Edward VII_.