Sister ship Artem
History
Russian Empire
Name	Desna
Builder	Metal Works, Saint Petersburg
Fate	Joined the Bolsheviks, November 1917
Soviet Union
Acquired	November 1917
Renamed	Engels, 31 December 1922
Fate	Sunk, 24 August 1941
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Orfey-class destroyer
Displacement	1,260 long tons (1,280 t)
Length	98 m (321 ft 6 in)
Beam	9.3 m (30 ft 6 in)
Draught	3 m (9 ft 10 in)
Installed power	4 Vulcan-Thornycroft boilers 30,000 shp (22,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 steam turbines
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range	1,250 nmi (2,320 km; 1,440 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement	167
Armament	4 × single 102 mm (4 in) guns 1 × single 37 mm (1.5 in) AA gun 3 × triple 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes

Desna (Russian: Десна) was one of eight Orfey-class destroyers built for the Russian Imperial Navy during World War I. Completed in 1916, she served with the Baltic Fleet and joined the Bolshevik Red Fleet after the October Revolution of 1918. She was active during the Russian Civil War, taking part in several engagements against British ships during the British campaign in the Baltic. The destroyer was renamed Engels (Russian: Энгельс) in 1922. She remained in service with the Soviet Baltic Fleet when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), and was sunk on 24 August.

Bibliography

• Breyer, Siegfried (1992). Soviet Warship Development: Volume 1: 1917–1937. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-604-3.
• Budzbon, Przemysław (1985). "Russia". In Gray, Randal (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 291–325. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Budzbon, Przemysław (1980). "Soviet Union". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 318–346. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Budzbon, Przemysław; Radziemski, Jan & Twardowski, Marek (2022). Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939–1945. Vol. I: Major Combatants. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-877-6.
• Hill, Alexander (2018). Soviet Destroyers of World War II. New Vanguard. Vol. 256. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-2256-7.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Watts, Anthony J. (1990). The Imperial Russian Navy. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 0-85368-912-1.