"Poltava" was subsequently raised, repaired and reclassified as a first-class coastal defense ship in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Renamed "Tango" (丹後), she served as a gunnery training ship and participated in the Siege of Tsingtao at the beginning of World War I. She was sold back to Russia in March 1916 as the countries were now allies against the Central Powers and arrived in Vladivostok on 2 April 1916. Renamed "Chesma" ("Чесма"), because her original name was being used by a , the ship arrived in Port Said, Egypt, on 19 September, and later supported efforts to intimidate the Greek Government into supporting Allied operations in Macedonia. She arrived at Alexandrovsk on 16 January 1917 after a brief refit in Birkenhead and became flagship of the Arctic Flotilla. Her crew joined the Bolsheviks in October 1917 and "Chesma" was captured by the British in Murmansk in March 1918 during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship was already in poor condition, and the British immobilized her when they departed Russia in October 1919. She was stricken from the Navy List on 3 July 1924 and subsequently scrapped.