[4] She was moved from Devonport to Scapa Flow for crushing hurdles put up to prevent German submarines entering.

Perhaps the most famous duty the Krassin performed was rescuing General Umberto Nobile and his surviving crew when their airship Italia crashed on the ice upon returning from the North Pole in 1928.

[3] She continued her journey through the Panama Canal to Great Britain, where she was armed with surface and anti-aircraft guns and proceeded to Reykjavik, Iceland to join convoy PQ-15.

[7] In 1942 the Krassin and Lenin were spotted at the Mona Islands in the Kara Sea by a Kriegsmarine plane during Operation Wunderland.

The heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer rushed to find them, but providential bad weather, fog and ice conditions saved the icebreakers from destruction.

[citation needed] Between August 1953 to June 1960, under the East German war reparations program, Krassin was extensively reconstructed at VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft, Wismar, Germany.

JSC "Tehimeks" planned to sell the icebreaker to the United States of America to be broken up as scrap metal.