Qualla: Soviet Destroyer Dzerzhinsky

Soviet Destroyer Dzerzhinsky: Introduction

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. For most of a year, the destroyer Dzerzhinsky lived on borrowed luck. Through the desperate summer of 1941 she ran ammunition into besieged Odessa, dueled shore batteries, and shrugged off Heinkel bombers and near-misses that damaged her guns and torpedo tubes. She survived them all. What finally killed her, on 14 May 1942, was not a German plane or shell but a Soviet mine, struck in fog as she groped toward Sevastopol through her own side's defensive minefield. She sank so quickly that of nearly three hundred people aboard, only twenty-seven were pulled from the sea.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Soviet Destroyer Dzerzhinsky: Two Names, Two Empires

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The ship began life under the Imperial flag. She was one of eight Fidonisy-class destroyers built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the First World War, launched in 1916 under the name Kaliakria. Even her armament reflected the moment: unhappy with the anti-aircraft guns origi...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Soviet Destroyer Dzerzhinsky: The Odessa Runs

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. When Germany invaded in June 1941, Dzerzhinsky was stationed at Batumi and immediately went to work, laying 240 mines off the naval base in four night sorties. Then came Odessa. With larger ships held back after heavy losses, the aging destroyers carried the burden of supporting ...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Soviet Destroyer Dzerzhinsky: Lost in the Fog

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. By May 1942 the focus had shifted to besieged Sevastopol. Loaded with reinforcements at Novorossiysk, Dzerzhinsky approached the harbor channel on the foggy night of 13-14 May and waited for the visibility she needed to thread a Soviet minefield. Late that morning, with commander...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain