Laid down on 18 October 1913 at the Rossud Dockyard as Admiral Lazarev for the Imperial Russian Navy as a cruiser of the Svetlana class, she was launched on 8 June 1916.

On 25 January 1919, the ship was formally renamed in "Hetman Petro Doroshenko", but Mykolaiv was captured shortly afterward by the Entente.

[2] Krasny Kavkaz was initially intended to accommodate eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns in four twin turrets, but this was impossible given her small and lightly constructed hull.

While under repair at Poti in late 1942 she landed her aft pair of torpedo tubes and received two more Minizini mounts salvaged from the sunken cruiser Chervona Ukraina.

[6] Krasny Kavkaz, in company with the cruisers Chervona Ukraina, Komintern and a number of destroyers, laid down a defensive mine barrage protecting the Black Sea Fleet base at Sevastopol on 22 June.

[12] During the Kerch–Feodosiya operation, Krasny Kavkaz sailed into the harbor of Feodosiya on 29 December 1941 and disembarked reinforcements and provided gunfire support for Soviet troops already ashore.

On the night of 4 February 1943 the Soviets made a series of amphibious landings to the west of Novorossiysk, behind German lines.

[15] The loss of three destroyers attempting to interdict the German evacuation of the Taman Bridgehead on 6 October 1943 caused Stalin to forbid the deployment of large naval units without his express permission and this meant the end of Krasny Kavkaz's active participation in the war.

[17] On 21 November 1952, she was put out to sea at 18 knots (33.3 km/h) and without crew[18] to allow for the testing of a Komet anti-ship missile with a proper warhead.

[17][18] Her estimated wreck location is roughly 15 miles (24.14 km) south of Cape Chauda [ru], on the southern tip of Feodosia Gulf.