Overview
Oleg was the 4th and final protected cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy.
Operational history
Oleg was laid down at the Admiralty Shipyards at St. Petersburg on 6 July 1902, launched on 14 August 1903 and commissioned into the Russian Baltic Fleet on 24 June 1904. With the Russo-Japanese War already in progress, she was seconded to the Russian Second Pacific Squadron.
Russo-Japanese War
Under the command of Admiral Oskar Enkvist, Oleg was part of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron, which sailed from the Baltic Sea around the world to relieve the Japanese blockade of the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. The squadron engaged Japanese Admiral Togo Heihachiro’s Combined Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima on 15 May 1905. During the battle, Oleg was damaged, but managed to escape and, together with the cruisers and reached the protection of the neutral port of Manila, where she was interned to the end of the war.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).