She was captured by Finland in the aftermath of the Finnish Civil War in 1918 and renamed Ilmarinen until returned to the Soviet Union in 1922.

Silatch (Russian for "strong man") was built in 1910 by W. Crichton shipyard in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Despite the efforts of Ilmarinen, the weak-hulled torpedo boats were crushed by the ice, and the newly founded Finnish Navy lost one fifth of its ships.

After rejoining the Soviet Union, the ship was given back her original name, Silatch, and was again stationed in her former home port, Petrograd, which was renamed Leningrad in 1924.

The Germans had repaired and commissioned her as Nordlicht ("northern lights"), but the ship was sunken by a Soviet air strike.