Completed in 1917, she played a minor role in the war as part of the Black Sea Fleet before the Russian Revolution began later that year.

Her crew joined the Bolsheviks in December and the ship supported their efforts to assert control in the Crimea over the next several months.

Three years later they successfully salvaged her engine room and incorporated her steam turbines into a power station in Tuapse.

[4] After being added to the Black Sea Fleet ship list on 2 July 1915, Kerch was laid down in the Russud Shipyard in Nikolayev on 29 October 1915.

[5] The navy ceased offensive operations against the Central Powers in early November in response to the Bolshevik Decree on Peace before a formal Armistice was signed the next month.

[5] In January 1918 the ship supported Bolshevik efforts to consolidate their power in Yevpatoria and Feodosia, Crimea, and bombarded Romanian troops in the Danube estuary.

On 22 November 1922 the Soviet salvage organization EPRON attempted to raise her wreck, but it broke into pieces while being lifted.