Tsar Alexander III's ambitious building programme of 1882 called for construction of 16 battleships in 20 years for the Baltic Fleet. By 1890 the program was behind schedule and the director of the Naval Ministry, Vice Admiral , proposed that six first-class and four second-class battleships be built together with some armored coast-defense ships to make up the numbers required. The "Petropavlovsk"-class ships were designed as first-class battleships to meet his requirement for a heavily armored ship that displaced and had a speed of , a maximum draught of and a range of with good seakeeping qualities.