After the Bolsheviks' victory in the October Revolution at the end of 1917, the unstable Russian situation caused by the civil war prompted the German Supreme Army Command to take expansive action in the East.
Germany actively used this situation to their advantage, which represented a breach of the Brest Litovsk peace treaty, as a pretext for further conquest.
In view of further imminent Allied landings, the Bolshevik side advocated joint action against the Murman Railway, white units in Ukraine (especially the Don Cossacks) and against General Alexeyev.
[1] The German side wanted to secure a logistic base due to the well developed railway network there, but at the same time to gain control over the Baltic fleet and the Russian power centre.
Vice Admiral Friedrich Boedicker was appointed commander of the German forces, who immediately ordered the clearing of the access roads from mines to the Gulf of Finland.
Battle Squadron, to which the ships belonged, embarked on the Small Cruiser Stralsund on 16 August and sailed to Libau, where Commander Boedicker joined them.