High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Borodino class battlecruisers were a group of four battlecruisers ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy before World War I. Also referred to as the Izmail class, they were laid down in December 1912 at Saint Petersburg for service with the Baltic Fleet. Construction of the ships was delayed as many domestic factories were overloaded with orders and some components had to be ordered from abroad. The start of World War I slowed their construction still further as the imported components were often not delivered and domestic production was diverted into areas more immediately useful for the war effort.