The "Petropavlovsk"-class ships were long overall, had a beam of and a draught of . Designed to displace , they were overweight and actually displaced . The ships were the first flush-decked battleships built for the navy. They had a partial double bottom, and the hull was divided by 10 watertight transverse bulkheads; a centerline bulkhead divided the machinery spaces. The upper part of the hull between the main and upper decks curved inwards (tumblehome). The "Petropavlovsk"s had a designed metacentric height of and were good seagoing ships. Their crew consisted of 26–27 officers and 605–625 enlisted men; "Petropavlovsk" had a crew of 750 when serving as a flagship.