Training ship Ocean was designed based on a passenger liner and constructed at the German Howaldtswerke shipyard as a vessel for training naval machinists and fire feeders. After the Russo-Japanese war broke out, Ocean escorted the ships of the 2nd Pacific Squadron to the Mediterranean Sea as a supply vessel. The ship was renamed Komsomolets in 1922. In 1927, she was supposed to be rebuilt as a training aircraft carrier—all of her upper superstructures were intended to be removed, and a flight deck was to be rigged in their place. It was also planned to erect a double-deck hangar on her upper deck.