With her sea trials cut short by the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in June, Svirepy was assigned to the Baltic Fleet and fought in the Gulf of Riga and the defense of Tallinn, Estonia, providing naval gunfire support to Soviet troops.

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.

[10] From 13 to 19 July, again with Smely and Strashny, she operated in Moonsund and the Gulf of Riga, fighting off repeated German air attacks.

[10] Near miss bomb explosions on 16 July flooded several compartments and bent the left propeller shaft, while splinters killed two and wounded eight crew members.

Returning to Tallinn on 20 July, she came under attack from German S-boats in Moonsund, but forced them to retire behind a smoke screen by firing fourteen 130 mm shells.

[9] The destroyer escaped relatively unscathed during the evacuation of Tallinn from 23 to 28 August,[8] having her steering temporarily knocked out due to a near miss bomb explosion.

On 1 October Svirepy was hit by a shell on her aft superstructure that disabled a 76 mm gun and a torpedo tube in addition to destroying berthing compartments, wounding one and killing five crewmen.

[Note 1] Repairs were postponed, and the destroyer returned to fire support duty on 4 October, expending 377 main-gun shells in 51 bombardments over the next month and a half.

[9] Svirepy made three trips to Gogland between 23 November and 6 December, covering attempts to save the wrecked transport Iosif Stalin.

In these two years her 130 mm guns carried out thirteen firings, all training except for one February 1943 bombardment in support of the Battle of Krasny Bor during which she expended 120 shells.