In 1931 the submarine officially started its naval service. In 1934 and 1935 D-2 undertook several historical voyages. A bit later, in 1939 D-2 provided radio communication with the transcontinental nonstop flight to the USA undertaken by the test pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki (1904–1985). In 1939 D-2 arrived in Leningrad for overhaul and upgrading and remained here when the Great Patriotic War broke out.
On August 17, 1941, the submarine was assigned to the Baltic Navy. During the War D-2 under the command of the captain R.V. Lindenberg undertook 4 combat voyages and scuttled “Jacobus Fritzen” and presumably the vessel “Nina”. D-2 also wrecked the ferry-boat “Deutschland” on October 19, 1942.
After the World War II the submarine implemented training missions in the Baltic Sea. In 1956 D-2 was decommissioned as obsolete and refitted into a training center “UTS-6”. Escape trainings, fire and flooding damage control operations were practiced there by future generations of submariners up to 1987.
In late 1980s the Government of the USSR decided to arrange a memorial dedicated to submariners of the Great Patriotic War, designers and subsea naval architects. The Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering “Rubin”, Baltic Shipyard and Leningrad Naval Base participated in the recovery of the submarine. The exhibition was dedicated to the history of D-2 and the actions of Soviet submariners in the war time. The compartments of the D-2 submarine and its exterior were reconstructed to make them look the same way as they were in the years of the WW II. On July 8, 1989 the submarine was set up in Leningrad as a naval and shipbuilding memorial. In 1993 the opening ceremony was attended by V.V. Putin and four admirals: Kasatonov, Grishanov, Chernavin, Korchagin. On 2 nd September, 1994, the memorial complex “Submarine D-2 Narodovolets” officially became the branch of the Central Naval Museum and is open for visitors nowadays.