After the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) in June 1941, the ship participated in the Gulf of Riga Campaign before withdrawing to Tallinn, Estonia.

Smetlivy supported Soviet forces during the defense of Tallinn in August and covered the subsequent evacuation to Leningrad.

The ship provided naval gunfire support to the defenders of Leningrad over the next several months before she was assigned to evacuate Soviet troops from their enclave in Hanko, Finland, in November.

Variations in fuel oil capacity meant that the range of the Gnevnys varied between 1,670 to 3,145 nautical miles (3,093 to 5,825 km; 1,922 to 3,619 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).

189 (Ordzhonike) as yard number 294, Smetlivy was laid down on 17 September 1936, launched on 16 July 1937, and was completed on 6 November 1938.

[8] Assigned to the Baltic Fleet, she served on patrol and escort duty during the Winter War,[9] aside from bombarding the coastal artillery positions on the Finnish island of Russarö on 1 December 1939 with her sister ship Stremitelny and the light cruiser Kirov.

[11] The ship bombarded German positions during the defense of Tallinn between 24 and 28 August, firing 456 shells from her main guns.

On 14 October the destroyer was attached to the group of ships in the River Neva and moved to the Ust-Izhora area to provide gunfire support.

Twenty minutes later, another mine explosion detonated her forward magazine and blew off her bow all the way back to her bridge.