The advance of the Germans and White Finns soon threatened the port of Helsingfors (now Helsinki), where the Baltic Fleet was based.

[13][11] Azard was active during the Russian Civil War,[3] and from 4–24 December 1918 shelled German and Estonian forces near Aseri and Kunda in Estonia.

[11][12] Fyodor Raskolnikov, Commissar of the Baltic Fleet, planned an attack on British naval forces at Reval (now Tallinn) on 25 December, to be carried out by Azard and the destroyers Spartak and Avtroil, with the cruiser Oleg and battleship Andrei Pervozvanny in distant support.

Azard was out of fuel and Avtroil was suffering from mechanical problems, so Spartak attacked Reval alone on the morning of 26 December, but was caught by the British destroyers Vendetta, Vortigern and Wakeful while trying to retreat to Kronstadt.

[16] This encounter prompted the British to send a force of three light cruisers and six destroyers into the Gulf of Finland, arriving off Seskar on 30 May.

On 31 May, Azard was again escorting minesweepers, with the battleship Petropavlovsk as distant cover, when it encountered the British destroyer Walker.

Konstantin and Svoboda were sunk by mines within minutes, with only Azard, at the rear of the formation, escaping unharmed.

[11][12] On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and as a response the Baltic Fleet laid minefields in the Gulf of Finland, with Artem sailing from Tallinn as part of a minelaying force that also included the destroyers Leningrad, Minsk, Karl Marx and Volodarskiy and the minelayers Marti and Ural.

[28] The Soviet evacuation of Tallinn began on 27 August, with 190 ships being split between four convoys bound for Kronstadt, with Artem forming part of the covering force.

Artem was sunk by a mine during that night, as were the destroyers Yakov Sverdlov, Skory, Kalinin and Voldarsky, three submarines, three minesweepers and thirteen transports.