SMS Pillau was a light cruiser ordered by the Russian navy under the name Maraviev Amurskyy from the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig in 1913 and launched in April 1914. Following the outbreak of World War I, the ship was confiscated in August 1914 and renamed SMS Pillau. The ship was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in December 1914. The lead ship of her class, she had one sister ship, Elbing. She was armed with a main battery of eight 15 cm SK L/45 guns and had a top speed of .