The Imperial Russian Navy was the navy of the Russian Empire, it existed from 1696 until the February Revolution of 1917, growing out of a smaller force that existed before Peter the Great founded the regular Russian Navy during the Second Azov campaign. It was expanded in the second half of the 18th century and by the early part of the 19th century had reached its peak strength, only behind the British and French fleets in terms of size. The navy then went into a period of decline due to Russia's slow technical and economic development in the first half of the 19th century but it underwent a revival in the latter part of the century during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II until most of its Pacific Fleet was destroyed in the disastrous Russo-Japanese War. The First World War was mixed for the navy, with the Germans generally gaining the upper hand in the Baltic but the Black Sea falling under Russian control. The Russian Revolution marked the end of the Imperial Navy with its sailors fighting on both sides and its surviving ships forming the core of the Soviet Navy upon its creation in 1918.