While initially assigned to the Baltic Fleet, the ship was detached to the Mediterranean several times before the start of World War I in 1914.

[1] The ship had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines with a designed total of 16,500 indicated horsepower (12,304 kW) intended to propel the cruiser at 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph).

[2] However, during sea trials, they developed 19,320 indicated horsepower (14,410 kW) and drove the ship to a maximum speed of 22.55 knots (41.76 km/h; 25.95 mph).

[1] Admiral Makarov's main armament consisted of two 8-inch (203 mm) 45-calibre guns in single-gun turrets fore and aft.

[3] Anti-torpedo boat defense was provided by twenty 75-millimetre (3.0 in) 50-calibre guns; eight of these were mounted in casemates on the side of the hull and in the superstructure.

The following year, the ship was one of a group of cruisers that visited Brest, France, the Isle of Portland in Great Britain, and Stavanger, Norway.

The following month, she provided cover as other cruisers laid minefields in the western Baltic Sea, near Bornholm and Rügen Islands on the night of 12 January 1915.

On 13 February, the ship was en route to cover another minelaying sortie in the Gulf of Danzig, when Rurik ran aground in fog off Fårö Island.

She was pulled off despite taking 2,400 long tons (2,400 t) of water aboard, and Admiral Makarov escorted the damaged ship back home.

The Russians concentrated on Albatross, which was forced to run aground in Swedish territorial waters, while the faster Augsburg escaped to the south.

[9] When the German launched Operation Albion, the invasion of the Estonian islands of Saaremaa (Ösel), Hiiumaa (Dagö) and Muhu (Moon), on 11 October 1917, Admiral Makarov was in Finland, although she was assigned to the naval forces defending the Gulf of Riga.