Imperial Russian armoured cruiser Gromoboi on a dock at Vladivostok, between 1901-1905.

Gromoboi was built by the Baltic Works in Saint Petersburg. Construction began on 14 June 1897, the ship was launched on 8 May 1899 she was transferred to Kronstadt on 24 November 1899 to finish fitting out. She left Liepāja on 10 December 1900 en route to the Far East and stopped briefly at Kiel, where she was inspected by Prince Henry of Prussia, and at Plymouth where the officers visited the Devonport naval base. She represented Russia at the granting of the constitution to Australia, visiting Sydney and Melbourne in April-May 1901, before visiting Nagasaki in July. Gromoboi finally reached Port Arthur on 29 July 1901. She remained in the Pacific until the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. When the war broke out, she was based in Vladivostok and made several sorties in search of Japanese shipping in the conflict's early months without much success. The squadron made a number of sorties against Japanese shipping early in the war. The Japanese sank the oldest Russian ship, Rurik, and damaged Gromoboi and Rossia during the subsequent Battle off Ulsan. Both Russian ships were repaired within two months. Gromoboi ran aground immediately after completing her repairs and was out of action for four months. Three months after the damage from the grounding incident was repaired, she struck a mine, but successfully returned to port. Her armament was reinforced while under repair, but she saw no further action during the war.