"Tango" was laid down as the Russian battleship "Poltava" (), the second of three pre-dreadnought battleships. The ship was assigned to the Pacific Squadron shortly after her completion and based at Port Arthur from 1901. During the Russo-Japanese War, she participated in the Battle of Port Arthur and was heavily damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea. Sunk by Japanese artillery during the subsequent Siege of Port Arthur in December 1904, she was refloated by the IJN after the war and subsequently renamed "Tango". During World War I, she bombarded German fortifications during the Siege of Tsingtao. The Japanese government sold "Tango" back to the Russians in 1916. She was renamed "Chesma" () as her former name had been given to a new ship. Her crew declared for the Bolsheviks in October 1917, but saw no action in the Russian Civil War owing to her poor condition, and she was ultimately scrapped in 1924.