Her crew declared for the Bolsheviks in October 1917, but made no effort to resist when the British captured her during the North Russia intervention in early 1918.

[4] Delayed by shortages of skilled workmen, design changes and late delivery of the main armament, the ship was under construction for six years.

On 15 October the sisters set sail for Port Arthur and later had to unload much of their ammunition, coal and other stores to reduce their drafts enough to pass through the Suez Canal.

[6] After the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, both Russia and Japan had ambitions to control Manchuria and Korea, resulting in tensions between the two nations.

Japan had begun negotiations to reduce the tensions in 1901, but the Russian government was slow and uncertain in its replies because it had not yet decided exactly how to resolve the problems.

[7] As tensions with Japan increased, the Pacific Squadron began mooring in the outer harbor at night in order to react more quickly to any Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea.

Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defenses with his main armament and engage the ships with his secondary guns.

[6] Poltava participated in the action of 13 April, when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, her sister Petropavlovsk.

Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions, prompting the Russians to lay more minefields, which sank two of his battleships the following month.

[10] Rear Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft became the new commander of the First Pacific Squadron and led a half-hearted attempt to reach Vladivostok on 23 June; intercepted by the Combined Fleet, he returned to Port Arthur without engaging the Japanese ships.

[12] On 10 August the Imperial Japanese Army, which had been slowly pushing south to Port Arthur, began an assault on the city's outer defenses.

The battleship Mikasa, the Japanese flagship, then fired several shots that hit Poltava, causing the Russian squadron to drop back to support her.

Owing to the damage Mikasa had sustained, the Japanese fleet broke off the attack at around 15:20 and turned to starboard, opening the range.

Rear Admiral Prince Pavel Ukhtomsky, second in command of the squadron, signaled the other Russian ships to steam back to Port Arthur.

The signal flags were only gradually recognized by Pobeda, Sevastopol, Pallada and Poltava and the other vessels took some time to re-form for the return voyage.

[11] Poltava, along with Tsesarevich and Peresvet, sustained hits at the waterline that crippled their maneuverability, preventing the Russian squadron from fleeing to Vladivostok.

[15] Returning to Port Arthur on 11 August, the Russian squadron found the city still under siege by the Japanese Third Army led by Baron Nogi Maresuke.

[11] The new squadron commander, Rear Admiral Robert N. Viren, believed in reinforcing the landward defenses of the port and continued to strip guns, and sailors to man them, from his ships.

[11] On 5 December the Japanese captured 203 Meter Hill, a crucial position that overlooked the harbor and allowed them to direct their artillery at the Russian ships.

That started a fire that could not be put out because the flooding system had been previously damaged and eventually ignited propellant charges in the adjacent 12-inch magazine.

About a half-hour after the hit, the magazine exploded and blew a hole in the ship's bottom that caused her to sink 45 minutes later in the shallow water.

The squadron was tasked to blockade the German-owned port of Qingdao, China, and to cooperate with the Imperial Japanese Army in capturing the city.

After the British withdrew, the abandoned ship was captured by the Red Army in March 1920 and incorporated into the Bolshevik White Sea Military Flotilla on 24 April.