Russia paying strengthening of navy with voluntary gifts according to the Dutch newspaper Het nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië dated 15 May 1905

An item reported that the commission responsible for collecting voluntary gifts for the Russian navy published the results over 1904/ Until 19 February was almost 17.000,000 Dutch guilders received and was the building of 18 torpedo cruisers ordered. With a displacement of 500-615 ton was their speed 20 knots. Further more were four submarines ordered.(1) The reasons for the choice for this kind vessels was the impossibility to let warships built at foreign shipyards during the war and the necessity to rebuilt the Russian navy. The czar ordered that the first series was to be named Emir Bocharski, Finn, Stavropolski Troechmenets, Kasanets, Wolskowoj and Ukraine. The first two ships were originally to depart with the 3rd squadron but were not on time ready due to strikes and uprisings lately. They were now in the summer to be completed. Of the four ordered submarines was the Veldmaarschalk graaf Sjeremetië [=Feldmarshal Graf Sheremetev] underway to the Far East, two others were executing their trials.

Note
1. Probably of the Kasatka-class of which six units were built in 1904 at the Baltic Works, St. Petersburg, Russia with a displacement of 140 (surfaced)-177 (submerged) tons and as dimensions 33,5 x 3,5 x 3,4 metres. The Feldmarshal Graf Sheremetev was one of them, she was finally broken up in 1922. The torpedo cruisers were named after the people which gave the largest gifts like the emir of Bochara (1 million rubles), the Finnish Senate (400.000 rubles) and count Orlof-Dawidof. Officers and non-commissioned officers of the army also supplied together around 400.000 rubles.