Russian cruiser Pamiat Merkuria

The Pamiat' Merkuria (Memory of Mercury) was a Bogatyr-class cruiser protected cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy. She saw service during World War I in the Black Sea, survived the Russian Civil War in a damaged state and was repaired by the Soviets, renamed as Komintern, and put into service as a training cruiser.

Service history
Pamiat' Merkuria was originally named Kagul and didn't receive her name until 25 March 1907. This has caused much confusion between her and her sister Ochakov regarding construction data. The data presented here is taken from Russian-language sources.

World War I
On 18 November 1914 Pamiat' Merkuria was escorting five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Black Sea Fleet off Cape Sarych when they encountered the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau. The Germans sheered off after an early hit on one of Goeben's 15 cm casemates that started an ammunition fire.

In January 1915 Pamiat' Merkuria and her sister Kagul twice encountered Breslau and the Turkish protected cruiser Hamidiye, also spelled Hamidieh, but the Turkish ships escaped both times without either side inflicting any damage.

On 10 May 1915 the Black Sea Fleet bombarded the Turkish forts defending the Bosporus. Two cruisers, the Pamiat' Merkuria and her sister Kagul were posted further out as pickets. Pamiat' Merkuria was spotted by the Goeben which was returning from a patrol off Eregli, 115 mi miles east of the Bosporus. Goeben immediately set off in pursuit while Pamiat' Merkuria headed at full speed for the main body, dodging shells from the German battlecruiser. The Russian pre-dreadnoughts quickly hit Goeben three times, and the battlecruiser broke off the engagement using her superior speed. Pamiat' Merkuria wasn't damaged during the battle.

Her 6 in guns were exchanged for sixteen 130 mm/55 guns during her refit from December 1916 to April 1917. She was dispatched to Constanta on 1 November 1917 to destroy the oil depot abandoned by the Romanians before it was captured by the Germans. A false submarine alarm caused her to abandon the bombardment before she inflicted any damage. But on 4 November Pamiat' Merkuria returned and fired 231 shells, destroying 15 of the 37 oil tanks.

Russian Civil War
Pamiat' Merkuria was captured by the Germans on 1 May 1918 after having been seized by the Bolsheviks in December 1917 and hulked by them in March 1918. During all time of the Hetmanat, the cruiser was in Ukrainian service. She ended up in the hands of the Whites in November 1918. She was disarmed in February 1919 and had her engines sabotaged in April 1919 by order of the British when the Whites temporarily lost control of Sevastopol. She was further damaged by the explosion of a mine when the Whites abandoned the Crimea in 1920. Once she fell into Soviet hands she spent several years under repair, which required parts and material from her sisters that were in even worse shape, including machinery from the Bogatyr, before they were scrapped. She was given the proper revolutionary name of Komintern, after the Communist International, on 31 December 1922 and was recommissioned in June 1923 as a training cruiser.