The seventh ship of the class, the vessel was launched in 1972 and served during the Cold War with the Northern Fleet, often operating in the Atlantic Ocean but also travelling to various ports in the Mediterranean Sea.

The ship acted as flagship for the Minister of Defence, Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Grechko, during the exercise Okean-75 in 1975 and operated alongside the newly launched Project 1143 Krechyet aircraft carrier Kiev in 1977 and 1978.

With the end of the Cold War, the Navy reassessed its need for large warships and, after a career stretching nearly twenty years, Admiral Isachenkov was decommissioned in 1992 and sold to be broken up.

Admiral Isachenkov was the seventh ship of the class of ten Project 1134A Berkut A (NATO reporting name 'Kresta II'-class) cruisers, designed by Vasily Anikeyev.

However, before the ships began to be built, commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy Admiral Sergey Gorshkov changed the role of the ships to that of destroying NATO attack submarines to allow Soviet Project 667A Navaga (NATO reporting name 'Yankee'-class) ballistic missile submarines to reach the central Atlantic and Pacific, from where the latter could launch their comparatively short-ranged ballistic missiles against targets in the United States.

[17][10] During the trials, air, surface and underwater surveillance systems were tested, seven anti-aircraft and four anti-submarine missiles were launched, the guns were fired and a torpedo was released.

[18] On 5 December, Admiral Isachenkov entered service with the Northern Fleet, and on 5 March the following year hosted the Minister of Defence, Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Grechko.

[20] Between August and October 1977, the ship was part of an experiment to find a form of emergency underwater acoustic communication through detonating bombs in code, using the MG-35 Shtil.

After a scheduled repair, the vessel rejoined Kiev and Marshal Timoshenko to serve as a military task force, entering the Mediterranean Sea on 12 June 1979.

[24] Returning to the Mediterranean, the vessel then undertook manoeuvres with Kiev and the Project 1123 Kondor (NATO reporting name 'Moskva' class) helicopter cruiser Leningrad between 4 January and 18 September 1981.

Once back in service, Admiral Isachenkov rejoined Kiev on 5 January 1987 for manoeuvres in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, serving until 24 June and observing the USS Nimitz carrier battle group.

[28] With the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the navy reassessed its need for a large fleet and decided to retire some of its larger and more expensive ships.