 After graduating from the Sea Cadet Corps and Nikolaev Naval Academy, on 1 January 1904, Kirill was promoted to Chief of Staff to the Russian Pacific Fleet in the Imperial Russian Navy.With the start of the Russo-Japanese War, he was assigned to serve as First Officer on the battleship , but the ship was blown up by a Japanese mine at Port Arthur in April 1904.Kirill barely escaped with his life, and was invalided out of the service suffering from burns, back injuries and shell shock.