She was damaged by mines during the Evacuation of Tallinn, Estonia, later that month, returning to Leningrad for repairs that lasted for most of September.

After a month of shore bombardments during the Siege of Leningrad, the destroyer participated in the evacuation of Hanko Naval Base in November and December, suffering damage that forced her to put in for repairs twice.

The crew complement of the Storozhevoy class numbered 207 in peacetime, but this increased to 271 in wartime, as more personnel were needed to operate additional equipment.

Variations in fuel oil capacity meant that the range of the Project 7Us varied from 1,380 to 2,700 nautical miles (2,560 to 5,000 km; 1,590 to 3,110 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), that upper figure demonstrated by Storozhevoy.

[9] Accepted by a state commission on 31 May 1941, she joined the 5th Destroyer Division of the Baltic Fleet on 19 June when the Soviet naval jack was raised aboard her,[10] based at Kronstadt.

When Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June, Slavny was at sea near the Hanko Peninsula.

She participated in minelaying operations at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland on 27 and 29 June, then escorted the battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya from Tallinn to Kronstadt with her sister ship Svirepy on 1 July.

The destroyer fought in the defense of Tallinn, regularly conducting shore bombardments and providing anti-aircraft fire, receiving minor damage from a close bomb explosion on 26 August.

The destroyer departed Tallinn for Kronstadt late on 28 August with the covering force, fighting off two German air attacks that day.

Slavny anchored and resumed the voyage at 06:00 on the next day, arriving at Kronstadt on the evening of 29 August after escaping from three air raids along the way.

[6] After repairs, Slavny returned to duty by 21 September, evading one German air raid by maneuvering in the Kronstadt roadstead.

The destroyer damaged her port screw in an anti-submarine net at Kronstadt on 11 November, which forced her to be docked for repairs.

The destroyer's wheel jammed after a Gall chain broke the next day, reducing the ship to a speed of three to four knots (5.6 to 7.4 km/h; 3.5 to 4.6 mph).

Engaged multiple times by Finnish coastal artillery en route without success, Slavny arrived at Kronstadt on the evening of 5 December.