Varyag was a Russian armored and deck cruiser under which the keel was laid in 1899 at the William Cramp shipyard in Philadelphia, launched in October of the same year, and commissioned in the Russian Navy in 1901. The length of the ship was 129.6 m, width 15.9 m, and a full displacement of about 7,000 tons. The maximum speed was 23 knots. The main armament was 12 152 mm guns, and the secondary armament consisted of, among others, 12 76 mm guns or six 381 mm torpedo tubes.
Varyag was one of three cruisers ordered by the tsarist government from foreign shipyards for service in the Far East just before the outbreak of the Japanese-Russian War (1904-1905). She turned out to be a successful ship - she had a nice top speed, although slower than her theoretically sister Askold. It was also well armored and had good sea prowess. It had - compared to Askold - much better living conditions for the crew. It had, however, less well-placed artillery. In 1902 Varyag joined the Russian Pacific Ocean Squadron. During the Japanese-Russian war (1904-1905), he fought a heroic battle near the Korean town of Czemulpo, becoming a legend of the Russian fleet. During the battle, he was self-sunk by the crew. However, the Japanese managed to lift the ship from the bottom in August 1905 and incorporated it into its own navy under the name Soya. Interestingly, in 1916 Japan sold the cruiser to tsarist Russia, but due to its poor technical condition, it did not enter line service and did not take an active part in combat operations, and in 1925 it was dismantled.