Battleship model kits: Gangut (New Masters), 1914, scale 1/700
Battleship Gangut was the lead ship of the Gangut-class battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy built before World War I, although she was the last to be completed. The Ganguts were the first class of Russian dreadnoughts. She was named after the Russian victory over the Swedish Navy in the Battle of Gangut in 1714. Gangut was completed during the winter of 1914–15, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for minelaying operations. Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet after the February Revolution and joined the Bolsheviks in 1918. Gangut was laid up in 1918 for lack of manpower and not recommissioned until 1925, by which time she had been renamed Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya (October Revolution).
Battleship Gangut was reconstructed between 1931 and 1934 with new boilers, fire-control systems and greatly enlarged superstructures. During the Winter War she bombarded Finnish coastal artillery positions one time. Her anti-aircraft armament was greatly reinforced in early 1941, just before Operation Barbarossa. She provided gunfire support against the Germans during the Siege of Leningrad despite being bombed three times and under repair for a year. Retained on active duty after the war she became a training ship in 1954 before being struck off the Navy List in 1956 and slowly scrapped.
