[1] She was sold in secret to the Imperial Russian Navy and sailed from Barrow in April 1904, ostensibly bound for France, but was next reported at Libau under the name Anadyr, where she was outfitted as an auxiliary cruiser for the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1940 Dekabrist was used briefly as transport for Polish POWs from Vladivostok to Magadan en route to forced labour at the Kolyma gold mines in Siberia.
In December 1941, Dekabrist was employed on the Kola Run, the Allied supply route through the Norwegian Sea to the USSR's Arctic ports.
[5][6] In November 1942, Dekabrist took part in Operation FB, an attempt to run several independent-sailing merchant ships under cover of the Arctic night.
[6] Dekabrist's crew of 80 were able to abandon ship in four lifeboats; of these only one reached land, the inhospitable Hopen Island, and of that boat's 20 crew-members, only three survived.