Ship Modelers Database
Russian destroyer Novik
Sunk
Novik was a destroyer of the Imperial Russian Navy, lead ship of the prolific Novik class that eventually numbered over fifty vessels across several sub-groups. She served with the Baltic Fleet in World War I, joined the Bolsheviks in 1917, and was later renamed Yakov Sverdlov, serving the Soviet Navy until her loss in 1941.
Kits of this ship
+ Add a kitNo image | Novik | Orlik | 1:200 | Card | Available |
No image | Mały krążownik NOWIK | JSC | 1:250 | Card | — |
No image | Russian destroyer NOVIK | Modelik | 1:200 | Card | Available |
| Yakov Sverdlov, Russian Destroyer, 1941 | Kombrig (Combrig) | 1:700 | Resin | Available |
Plans
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Build logs
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Resources
+ Submit a resourceHistory & specifications
- Naval Encyclopedia: Novik Class Destroyers (1911-1917)Article
Detailed technical article covering design development, trials, armament, and assessment of the Novik as a landmark destroyer design.
- Navypedia: Novik Destroyer (1913) Technical DataWebsite
Concise technical data sheet with dimensions, armament, and modernization details useful for modelers.
- Wikipedia: Russian destroyer Novik (1911)Website
Comprehensive overview of design, specifications, and WWI/WWII service history, including her loss in 1941.
Museums & archives
- NHHC Photo: NOVIK (Russian destroyer, 1913-1941)Museum
Naval History and Heritage Command photograph archive entry showing the ship circa 1916 with reference caption.
Photos
- Wikimedia Commons: Category Novik (ship, 1911)Photo
Collection of freely licensed historical photographs of the ship, used to source the reference image.
History
Specifications
She displaced about 1,260 long tons normal (up to 1,590 long tons full load), measured 102.4 m long with a 9.5 m beam, and was powered by three-shaft AEG-Vulcan steam turbines fed by six Vulcan water-tube boilers for 39,000 shp. She reached 37.3 knots on trials, making her briefly the fastest ship in the world, and carried four single 102 mm guns, four twin 457 mm torpedo tube mounts, Maxim machine guns, and up to 60 mines.
Service history
Completed in 1910–13 at the Putilovsky Plant (with design input and trials work at AG Vulcan Stettin in Germany), Novik was commissioned in September 1913 and quickly proved herself in Baltic operations against German forces, including minelaying off Liepāja, escorting the cruiser Rurik near Memel, a destroyer action off Windau in 1915, and helping sink the German destroyer V 99 during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. Her crew joined the Bolsheviks in October 1917; she was laid up, extensively rebuilt in the late 1920s, and renamed Yakov Sverdlov in 1923, later serving as a division leader and then a training ship. Recalled to active duty at the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa, she struck a mine and sank on 28 August 1941 while escorting the cruiser Kirov during the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn.
Notable facts
Novik was the world's first oil-burning, turbine-powered destroyer built in Russia, and her design — a four-funnel silhouette with heavy gun and torpedo armament on a moderate displacement — directly influenced the later Derzky, Orfey, Izyaslav, and Fidonisy classes that made up the broader Novik class. Her combination of speed, firepower, and minelaying capability was considered ahead of contemporary British and German destroyers of the era, making her a landmark in pre-WWI destroyer design.