Admiral Oktyabrsky cruised in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans during 1974, 1977, and 1978, spending a year in refit until late 1979.

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

[1][5] Admiral Oktyabrsky was propelled by two TV-12 steam geared turbines powered by four high-pressure boilers, which created 91,000 shaft horsepower (68,000 kilowatts), giving her a maximum speed of 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph).

[7] Admiral Oktyabrsky was armed with a total of four AK-725 57-millimeter (2.2 in) dual-purpose guns in two twin mountings to protect against surface and aerial threats.

Built in the Zhdanov Shipyard with the serial number 726, the cruiser was laid down on 2 June of that year and launched on 21 May 1971.

During the voyage, Admiral Oktyabrsky visited Berbera, Somalia between 17 and 30 June before rendezvousing with the Black Sea Fleet helicopter carrier Leningrad and the destroyer Skory at Cape Guardafui, then went on to visit Aden, Yemen, between 6 and 23 August and Colombo, Sri Lanka, between 3 and 10 October.

As part of a search group with the destroyers Gordyy and Strogy, she participated in the Piton anti-submarine exercise in the Philippine Sea between 14 April and 15 May 1977, during which she was claimed to have detected seven United States nuclear submarines, following one to the territorial waters of Guam.

After returning to Vladivostok, Admiral Oktyabrsky was refitted at Dalzavod between 19 December 1982 and 10 October 1986, receiving replacement turbines and boilers,[14] updated Rastrub-B missiles for her Metel, the Shlyuz satellite navigation system and the Tsunami-BM satellite communications system.

Her career in the latter was brief, as she was decommissioned on 30 June 1993 due to the deterioration of the ship and lack of funds for repair, and the hull was transferred to an underwater engineering detachment, to be sold for scrap.