Interesting things to read about the Aurora cruiser. Cruiser Aurora: the centuries-old history of the legendary ship. From the Battle of Tsushima to the defense of Kronstadt

Shouldn't we call the cruiser "Polkan"?

When, in September 1896, the construction of a new naval vessel began at the St. Petersburg shipyard “New Admiralty”, the proud name “Aurora” did not even occur to anyone. New project called “a cruiser with a displacement of 6630 tons of the Diana type,” with which the cruiser existed for almost a year. Only in 1897 did he receive the name that Nicholas II came up with for him. The Emperor, so that he would not bother himself again, was offered a list of possible names. Among them: “Aurora”, “Naiad”, “Helione”, “Juno”, “Psyche”, “Askold”, “Varyag”, “Bogatyr”, “Boyarin”, “Polkan”, “Neptune”. The Emperor read the list , thought and wrote the word “Aurora” in the margins of the note.

Crocodiles from the Aurora refuse to fight

The ceremonial launching took place on May 11, 1900 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna, who watched what was happening from the Imperial Pavilion.

In 1905, at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, along with members of the crew of a cruiser heading to the shores of the Land of the Rising Sun, there were a couple of crocodiles taken on board during one of the stops in an African port. Such an unusual “cargo” can be explained simply: sailors were allowed to take their pets with them on the voyage. Of course, crocodiles can hardly be called pets, but, as they say, there is no arguing about tastes. They gave the crocodiles the nicknames Sam and Togo, arranged routine baths for them, and even tried to tame them. However, as it turned out, training crocodiles is a troublesome and thankless task: having seized a good moment, one of the crocodiles rushed into the ocean and disappeared forever in its blue waters. The commander's diary that evening was supplemented with a note: “One of the young crocodiles, whom the officers released today on the poop deck for fun, did not want to go to war; he chose to jump overboard and die.” The second reptile was killed during the Battle of Tsushima.

Those who, thinking about naval service, imagine that sailors bend their backs all day, scrubbing the deck or getting poked by the captain, can be immediately disappointed by talking about the structure of life on a cruiser. Leisure time on the Aurora was fun and varied: On Maslenitsa there were boat races, races across the mars (a platform on one of the masts), aiming competitions and a theatrical performance. By the way, the cruiser’s “troupe”, consisting of sailors, turned out to be so talented that they often visited other ships of the squadron to perform.

Hero Cruiser

During the Battle of Tsushima, the cruiser proved itself to be a reliable ship, capable of not only repelling an attack, but also inflicting crushing losses on the enemy: During the battle, the cruiser fired over 300 shells at the enemy, and more than once covered other Russian battleships. After the battle, the Aurora was missing five guns, irretrievably lost 16 people (including the captain of the ship) and received ten “wounds”

Symbol of revolution

In the 1917 revolution, the role of the cruiser was given special importance. Of course, now new government had its own formidable symbol of triumphant justice, which overnight destroyed the autocracy. However, literally in the first days after the salvo, rumors spread throughout the city, which... do not cease to this day. For example, there is an opinion that on the day of the storming of the Winter Palace, fire was opened from the cruiser. Those who believed this legend were first of all hastened to convince the ship’s crew, who sent a note to the editor of the newspaper Pravda, which stated that only one blank shot was fired from the cruiser, calling for “vigilance and readiness.” Also, this shot could not be called a signal shot, since it was fired at 21:40, while the assault began after midnight. In addition, it is worth considering that these days the cruiser was undergoing repairs, which excluded the possibility that live ammunition was fired.

The further fate of the cruiser

In 1941, the cruiser was supposed to be turned into a monument, but this was prevented by the war, during which the ship received serious damage. In July 1944, the cruiser was sent for repairs, which dragged on for four years, but nevertheless turned the Aurora into a monument, on board which was located training base Leningrad Nakhimov School, which later became a branch of the Central Naval Museum.

When two years later they began filming the film “Cruiser “Varyag””, they decided to film the “Aurora” as the ship. For filming, the cruiser was modified by installing a fourth, false funnel, and remodeling the bow.

In the summer of 1984, the cruiser was towed to the shipyard “for major repairs and re-equipment.” Three years later, the ship was in its place, but experts say that the cruiser now standing at the famous pier has little in common with the former Aurora. Only part of the hull above the waterline remains of the real cruiser. The lower one, filled with concrete, rests in the ship’s cemetery.

On September 21, 2014, the cruiser will again undergo repairs, which were previously estimated at 120 million rubles. So if you are a fan of naval technology or are interested in the history of one of the most famous ships in Russia, hurry up, the pier will be empty for about two years.

Future a year will pass under the sign of a big and controversial anniversary - the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. In anticipation of this date, Rodina will publish unknown documents and memoirs, analytical articles and transcripts of discussions, photographs and verbal portraits of the characters in 1917. And the anniversary section “VECTORS of the Revolution” opens with its main symbol.

I heard this text on March 30, 2003 on board the cruiser Aurora, where the writer-sailor Viktor Konetsky was being remembered. He loved this ship very much. And those who came here loved Konetsky very much.

The tables were set in the wardroom. They talked quietly and not only about sad things. When Konetsky’s friend from the naval school, St. Petersburg actor Ivan Krasko, began to read this letter, the admirals and officers also began to smile. But then suddenly they reached for scarves...

_Igor Kots, chief editor of Rodina

"Having received 18 shells in battle..."

Let's look at the article of the dashing Mars naval officer L. I call him that familiarly, because he loves artistic images very much. Let's start with the title of his article - "Pirate Cruiser".

"A ship of dubious fame,- he writes, - participated in the sadly ended campaign of the 2nd Pacific Squadron of Admiral Rozhdestvensky to the Far East and even managed to avoid death at the bottom of the Tsushima Strait - the cruiser broke through to Manila."

The most interesting word here is “even” and also “at the bottom of the Tsushima Strait”.

Ships do not perish “at the bottom”, but in the waves of the ocean. We still have to get to the bottom. And you must be able to avoid death in battle and break through the encirclement of enemy ships, having received 18 shells in battle, with the commander and 14 sailors killed, with 8 wounded officers and 75 wounded sailors on board...

You, Mr. L., try to imagine what it means for the crew to be left in battle without a commander. The ability to maneuver, the ability to shoot, the ability to seal holes, the ability to evade torpedoes and shells, the ability to work for all the dead and wounded, and, most importantly, not to lower the flag, but to break through the encirclement of an enemy who is ten times stronger than you both in numbers and in quality, and still get from Tsushima to Manila on a ship riddled with shells.

“What do you dream about, the cruiser Aurora, at the hour when morning rises over the Neva?”

An effective ending for a beginning writer in a literary circle. “Aurora” dreams about a lot of things, a lot. Let’s take the collection of articles “Russian Naval Art”, volume 2, page 364. An officer of the cruiser “Aurora”, a participant in the Battle of Tsushima, writes:

“Our teams performed in battle above all praise. Every sailor showed remarkable composure, resourcefulness and fearlessness. Golden men and hearts! They cared not so much about themselves as about their commanders, warning about every enemy shot, covering the officers at the moment of the explosion. Covered with wounds and blood, the sailors did not leave their places, preferring to die at the guns. You didn’t even go to bandages, but they said: “We’ll have time, now there’s no time!” Only thanks to the dedication of the crew, we forced the Japanese cruisers to retreat, sinking two ships. , and four were disabled, with a large roll."

You write: "Aurora is a monument to the Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless."

L. writes: “The revolutionary ferocity of Russian sailors, their sadistic hatred of naval officers has still not been explained by historians. Were they a response to the specific aristocratic rudeness of the graduates of the Naval Corps or were they formed by the stress of serving in a confined space of cabins and cockpits?”

What kind of stress can there really be if for a thousand years sailors lived “in a closed room”? Of course, this is not a suite at the Astoria Hotel. Did they walk on the nok-for-bom-bram ray in Perth at a height higher than the Pillar of Alexandria? Nice enclosed space!

Now about the ferocity and sadistic hatred of officers, which our historians still cannot explain.

Have you, Mr. L., ever tried molts? A tench is a thin rope of white yarn, no thicker than an inch and a half in circumference.

“There was a specific aristocratic rudeness of Marine Corps graduates,” of course. But read Boris Lavrenev or Sergei Kolbasyev. But Nakhimov, Lazarev, Ushakov and hundreds of others of whom Russia is proud did not graduate from the Naval Corps?

Why are you, Mr. L., so angry at the sailors? Officers and admirals train sailors and lead them into battle. Yes, during one voyage of the Aurora to Siam (autumn - winter 1911 - 1912) with Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich on board, the sailors must have gone wild. Boris Vladimirovich managed to show so much tyranny and rudeness during the campaign, without being at all embarrassed by either the sailors or the officers’ eyes. He brought three chefs with him and 500 bottles of champagne.

You write further: “... the sailors of the Aurora, together with the “petrels of the revolution” from Kronstadt, tried to capture Petrograd in July 1917, and in October, having shelled the city, they finally earned their notorious fame as “cruisers of the revolution...”

Yes, the Aurora did not fire (you “fired”) at St. Petersburg, except for one blank bang in the direction of Zimny.

Captain-Lieutenant Viktor Konetsky

ONLY FACTS

And the cruiser’s guns smashed the Nazis

• On May 11, 1900, the cruiser was solemnly launched at the St. Petersburg shipyard "New Admiralty". Received the name "Aurora" - in memory of the sailing frigate of the same name, which heroically fought during Eastern War 1854 near Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka.
• In 1903 it became part of the Russian Navy.
• Participated in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars.
• On October 25, 1917, he fired a blank shot from a tank gun, which became the signal for the assault on the Winter Palace. What was written by V.I. was transmitted from the Aurora. Lenin's appeal "To the citizens of Russia!"
• Since 1923 she became a training ship.
• During the Great Patriotic War Using the main caliber guns taken from the ship, the Auror sailors crushed the Nazis in the area of ​​Voronya Gora and the Pulkovo Heights.
• On November 17, 1948, he dropped anchor at the site of his eternal anchorage at the Petrograd embankment of the Bolshaya Nevka.
• In 1956, a branch of the Central Naval Museum was opened on the ship.

The ship, whose name was chosen by the emperor, is a symbol of St. Petersburg.

The New Admiralty shipyard exactly 107 years ago - June 4, 1897 - began construction of the legendary cruiser Aurora. Emperor Nicholas II personally chose the name for the ship and was also present at its launch in 1900.At the moment, the cruiser "Aurora" is undergoing repairs in Kronstadt and is waiting to return to Petrogradskaya Embankment.

SPB.AIF.RU collected five interesting facts about the legendary ship, which will return to its historical place in 2016.

"Polkan" or "Bogatyr"

The armored cruiser of the first rank "Aurora" became the last in a series of three ships with a displacement of 6.6 thousand tons, built at the New Admiralty shipyard in late XIX century.The first two ships of the project were named “Pallada” and “Diana”. The third was unnamed for a year. According to tradition, which has existed since the time of Peter I, the right to name large ships belonged to the emperor. A list was placed in front of Nicholas II, which included the following names: “Heliona”, “Juno”, “Psyche”, “Polkan”, “Boyarin”, “Neptune”, “Askold”, “Bogatyr”, “Varyag” and “Aurora” " The emperor emphasized the latter, and also, so that there were no mistakes, wrote it in the margins with his own hand.

The ship under construction was named "Aurora" by order of April 6, 1897.However, previously a three-masted sailing frigate had the same name. That “Aurora” was built in 1835 in St. Petersburg at the Okhtinskaya shipyard.

Cruiser "Aurora". 1902 Campaign Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Crocodiles, lemurs and boas

The cruiser was solemnly launched in St. Petersburg in 1900. The ceremony was attended by Emperor Nicholas II, as well as Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna.

In 1905, when the Aurora sailed to the shores of the Land of the Rising Sun at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, two crocodiles lived on board the ship - they were the sailors' pets. The reptiles were taken on board at one of the African ports on the way to Japan.The crocodiles' names were Sam and Togo. According to the memoirs of the writer Yuri Chernov, who spoke about the life of sailors from the Aurora in the book “The High Fate of the Aurora,” there were also several chameleons, lemurs and a boa constrictor on board. The crew took the exotic animals on board after the death of the dog Sharik.The reptiles faced a difficult fate: Sam jumped off the deck and died, and Togo was killed during the Battle of Tsushima.

The cruiser Aurora during trials on June 14, 1903 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Cover yourself near Tsushima

Second squadron Pacific Fleet, which consisted of 38 warships and auxiliary vessels, reached the shores of Japan. Having crossed three oceans, she was unable to pass the Korea Strait. There, 89 ships of the Japanese fleet were waiting for her under the flag of Admiral Heihachiro Togo (editor’s note - it was in his honor that the crocodile on the Aurora was named).

The Japanese tried to disable the battleships with powerful fire.

The cruiser Aurora managed to survive the battle near Tsushima, protecting the ships. The ship's hull covered the wounded Russian battleships. Only three cruisers survived that battle - “Pearl”, “Oleg” and “Aurora”. The Russians also managed to survive with one destroyer and two auxiliary vessels. In the Battle of Tsushima, the Aurora received about 10 hits from shells of caliber ranging from 75 to 200 mm, and five guns were disabled. 16 crew members were killed, including the ship's captain, Evgeny Yegoryev. Also, 89 crew members were injured (according to other sources - 15 killed and 83 wounded).

A detachment of cruisers left for the Philippine port of Manila. The Americans disarmed the ships there. They left the foreign harbor only at the end of 1905, when a peace treaty was signed with Japan.

Sending the cruiser for repairs to Kronstadt. Photo: AiF / Irina Sergeenkova

Idle salvo of revolution

The cruiser "Aurora" is considered one of the main symbols October Revolution 1917, primarily due to the historic shot on the night of October 26.Many people still have doubts about this salvo. The fact is that the Aurora team immediately rushed to convince everyone who believed in the legend of firing live shells at the Winter Palace by sending a note to the newspaper. It said that only one was fired from the ship. blank salvo, serving as a call for “vigilance and preparedness.”This shot also could not be called a signal shot, since it was fired at 21.40 Moscow time, and the assault on the Winter Palace began after midnight.It was important for the sailors who wrote a note in the Pravda newspaper to emphasize that the ship did not fire live shells at the Winter Palace and did not threaten the lives of ordinary people.

Cruiser - actor

After the Great Patriotic War, the Aurora, which had received serious damage, arrived for repairs at the Baltic Shipyard, where it was to be prepared for installation in eternal parking.

At this time, Soviet officials decided to use the ship for filming in a film about the cruiser “Varyag”. By that time, the latter had already rested at the bottom of the Irish Sea, so its role was played by the legendary cruiser Aurora, which the filmmakers had to significantly “make up”, changing its appearance. The film was presented to the public in 1946.

Aurora is a 1st rank cruiser of the Baltic Fleet, known for its role in the October Revolution of 1917. Aurora heralded the onset of a new era in the history of Russia with her salvo. But what is the actual history of the cruiser Aurora? There are many little-known facts about Aurora, which will be discussed below.

Cruiser "Aurora": Myths and Facts

The construction of the ship lasted more than 6 years - the Aurora was launched on May 11, 1900 at 11:15 a.m., and the cruiser entered the fleet (after completion of all outfitting work) only on July 16, 1903.

Cruiser "Aurora": Myths and Facts

This ship was by no means unique in its combat qualities. The cruiser could not boast of a special speed (only 19 knots - squadron battleships of that time reached a speed of 18 knots), or weapons (8 six-inch main caliber guns - far from amazing firepower). Ships such as armored cruisers (Bogatyr) were much faster and one and a half times more powerful. And the attitude of the officers and crews towards these “domestic-made goddesses” was not very good - the Diana-class cruisers had a lot of shortcomings and constantly broke down

Nevertheless, these cruisers were fully adequate for their tasks - reconnaissance, destruction of enemy merchant ships, covering battleships from attacks by enemy destroyers, patrol service - having a solid (about seven thousand tons) displacement and good seaworthiness. With a full supply of coal (1430 tons), the Aurora could reach from Port Arthur to Vladivostok and return back.

All cruisers were intended for the Pacific Ocean, where a military conflict with Japan was brewing, and the first two of the ships were already at Far East. On September 25, 1903, the Aurora with a crew of 559 people under the command of Captain 1st Rank I.V. Sukhotin left Kronstadt. In the Mediterranean Sea, the Aurora joined the detachment of Rear Admiral A. A. Virenius, which consisted of the squadron battleship Oslyabya, the cruiser Dmitry Donskoy and several destroyers and auxiliary ships. However, the detachment was late for the Far East - in the African port of Djibouti, on Russian ships they learned about the Japanese night attack on the Port Arthur squadron and about the beginning of the war. It was risky to follow further, since the Japanese fleet blocked Port Arthur, and there was a high probability of meeting with superior enemy forces on the way to it. A proposal was made to send a detachment of Vladivostok cruisers to the Singapore area to meet Virenius and go with them to Vladivostok, and not to Port Arthur, but this quite reasonable proposal was not accepted.

On April 5, 1904, the Aurora returned to Kronstadt, where it was included in the 2nd Pacific Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky, which was preparing to march to the Far Eastern theater of operations. Here, six of the eight main-caliber guns were covered with armor shields - the experience of the Arthurian squadron’s battles showed that fragments of high-explosive Japanese shells literally mowed down unprotected personnel. In addition, the commander of the cruiser was changed - he became captain 1st rank E.R. Egoriev. On October 2, 1904, as part of the Aurora squadron, it set off for the second time - to Tsushima.

Admiral Rozhdestvensky was a rather unconventional personality. Among the many “quirks” of the admiral was the following - he had the habit of giving the warships entrusted to him nicknames that were very far from examples of fine literature. Thus, the cruiser “Admiral Nakhimov” was called “Idiot”, the battleship “Sisoy the Great” was called “Invalid Shelter”, and so on. The squadron included two ships with female names- former yacht “Svetlana” and “Aurora”. The commander called the first cruiser “Maid”, and “Aurora” was awarded the title “Fence Prostitute”. If Rozhdestvensky knew what kind of ship he calls that...

“Aurora” was part of the detachment of cruisers of Rear Admiral Enquist and during the Battle of Tsushima conscientiously carried out Rozhdestvensky’s order - it covered the transports. This task was clearly beyond the capabilities of four Russian cruisers, against which first eight and then sixteen Japanese cruisers acted. They were saved from heroic death only by the fact that a column of Russian battleships accidentally approached them and drove away the advancing enemy. The cruiser did not distinguish itself in anything special in the battle - the author of the damage attributed to the Aurora by Soviet sources, which the Japanese cruiser Izumi received, was in fact the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh.

At the beginning of the Battle of Tsushima on May 14, Aurora followed second the flagship cruiser of the Oleg detachment, covering the convoy of transports from the east. At 14:30, as part of his detachment, together with a reconnaissance detachment (2 cruisers, 1 auxiliary cruiser), he entered into battle with the 3rd (4 cruisers, Vice Admiral S. Deva) and 4th (4 cruisers, Rear Admiral S. . Uriu) by Japanese combat detachments, and at 15:20 also with the 6th Japanese combat detachment (4 cruisers, Rear Admiral K. Togo). At about 16:00 the ship came under fire from two armored cruisers of the 1st Japanese combat detachment, received serious damage and additionally entered into battle with the 5th Japanese combat detachment (3 cruisers, 1 battleship coastal defense, Vice Admiral S. Kataoka). At about 16:30, together with the detachment, he went under the protection of the non-firing side of the Russian battleships, but at 17:30-18:00 he took part in the last phase of the cruising battle.

In this battle, the ship received about 10 hits from shells of 8 to 3 inches in caliber, the crew lost 15 people killed and 83 wounded. The ship's commander, Captain 1st Rank E.R. Egoryev, died - he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment that hit the conning tower (he was buried at sea at 15°00′ N, 119°15′ E). (The commander’s son also took part in the Russo-Japanese War, serving on the Vladivostok cruiser squadron (on the cruiser Rossiya), becoming a rear admiral in Soviet times and teaching naval history at the Leningrad Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics - LITMO.)

After the death of the captain, senior officer Captain 2nd Rank A.K. Nebolsin, also wounded, took command of the Aurora. The cruiser Aurora received 37 holes, but was not damaged. The chimneys were seriously damaged, the bow mine compartment and several coal pits of the forward stoker were flooded. Several fires were extinguished on the cruiser. All rangefinder stations, four 75 mm and one 6 mm guns were out of action.

On the night of May 14/15, following the detachment's flagship, he forced the speed to 18 knots, broke away from enemy pursuit in the dark and turned south. After several attempts to turn north, repelling torpedo attacks by Japanese destroyers, two ships of O. A. Enquist’s detachment - “Oleg” and “Aurora” - with the cruiser “Pearl” joining them, arrived on May 21 at the neutral port of Manila (Philippines, US protectorate ), where they were interned on May 27, 1905 by American authorities until the end of the war. The team was forced to sign an undertaking not to participate in further hostilities. To treat the sick and wounded, both during the transition to the Far East and during and after the battle, an X-ray machine was used on the ship - this was the first use of fluoroscopy in shipboard conditions in world practice.

In 1906, the Aurora returned to the Baltic, becoming a training ship for the Naval Corps. The case and mechanisms underwent a major overhaul in St. Petersburg in 1906-1908. with the dismantling of torpedo tubes, the installation of an additional two 6-mm guns instead of four 75-mm guns, and the installation of rails for laying mine barriers. On October 10, 1907, she was reclassified from rank I cruisers to cruisers.

From the autumn of 1909 to the spring of 1910, “Aurora” made a long voyage with a “midshipman detachment” in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Visited the ports of Vigo, Algiers, Bizerte, Toulon, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Smyrna, Naples, Messina, Souda, Piraeus, Poros, Gibraltar, Vigo, Cherbourg, Kiel. During this voyage, as part of Mankovsky’s detachment (4 cruisers), he was in the ports of Greece due to the threat of a military mutiny there. From the autumn of 1910 to the spring of 1911, the ship was on a second long training voyage along the route Libau - Christiansand - Vigo - Bizerte - Piraeus and Poros - Messina - Malaga - Vigo - Cherbourg - Libau. Since 1911, he was a member of the 1st reserve cruiser brigade. From the autumn of 1911 to the summer of 1912, the Aurora went on a third long training voyage to participate in the celebrations of the coronation of the King of Siam (November 16 - December 2, 1911), and visited ports of the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the spring and summer of 1912, the cruiser was part of the international squadron of the “patron powers” ​​of Crete and stood as a Russian stationary in Suda Bay.

First World War"Aurora" met as part of the second brigade of cruisers of the Baltic Fleet (together with "Oleg", "Bogatyr" and "Diana"). The Russian command expected a breakthrough of the powerful German Fleet Open sea into the Gulf of Finland and an attack on Kronstadt and even St. Petersburg. To counter this threat, mines were hastily laid and a Central Mine and Artillery Position was set up. The cruiser was entrusted with the task of carrying out patrol duty at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland in order to promptly notify of the appearance of German dreadnoughts. The cruisers went out on patrol in pairs, and after the patrol period expired, one pair replaced the other. The Russian ships achieved their first success on August 26, when the German light cruiser Magdeburg landed on rocks near the island of Odensholm. The cruisers "Pallada" (the older sister of the "Aurora" died in Port Arthur, and this new "Pallada" was built after the Russian-Japanese War) and the "Bogatyr" arrived in time and tried to capture the helpless enemy ship. Although the Germans managed to blow up their cruiser, at the scene of the accident Russian divers found secret German codes, which served both the Russians and the British well during the war.

But a new danger awaited the Russian ships - in October, German submarines began operating in the Baltic Sea. Anti-submarine defense in the fleets of the whole world was then in its infancy - no one knew how and with what it was possible to hit the invisible enemy hiding under water, and how to avoid its surprise attacks. There were no traces of diving shells, much less depth charges or sonars. Surface ships could only rely on a good old ram - after all, one should not take seriously the anecdotal instructions that were developed, which instructed to cover spotted periscopes with bags and roll them up with sledgehammers. On October 11, 1914, at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, the German submarine U-26, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander von Berkheim, discovered two Russian cruisers: the Pallada, which was finishing its patrol service, and the Aurora, which had come to replace it. The commander of the German submarine, with German pedantry and scrupulousness, assessed and classified the targets - in all respects, the new armored cruiser was a much more tempting prey than a veteran of the Russian-Japanese War. The torpedo hit caused the detonation of the ammunition magazines on the Pallada, and the cruiser sank along with the entire crew - only a few sailor caps remained on the waves... The Aurora turned around and took refuge in the skerries. And again, one should not accuse Russian sailors of cowardice - as already mentioned, they did not yet know how to fight submarines, and the Russian command already knew about the tragedy that happened ten days earlier in the North Sea, where german boat sank three English ships at once armored cruisers. "Aurora" escaped destruction for the second time - fate was clearly protecting the cruiser

There is no need to dwell too much on the role of the Aurora in the events of October 1917 in Petrograd - more than enough has been said about this. Let us only note that the threat to shoot the Winter Palace from the cruiser’s guns was pure bluff. The cruiser was under repair, and therefore all the ammunition was unloaded from it in full accordance with the current instructions. And the stamp “Aurora salvo” is purely grammatically incorrect, since a “volley” is simultaneously fired shots from at least two barrels. From this it follows that the legends about the Aurora as a symbol of the revolution are a myth.

In 1918, the Aurora was laid up, and from the spring of 1919 it was mothballed. In September 1922, a special commission examined the ship and concluded: “The external condition of the ship and the nature of its long-term storage make it possible, after relatively simple repair work, to make the ship ready for use as a training ship.” In 1940-1945, the Aurora was stationed in Oranienbaum. In 1948, the cruiser was placed in “eternal mooring” at the quay wall of the Bolshaya Nevka River, where the museum ship is currently located. However, the modern cruiser is only a replica, since during the last reconstruction in 1984, more than 50% of the hull and superstructures were replaced. One of the most noticeable differences from the original is the use of welds on the new body instead of rivet technology. The ship itself was towed to a naval base in the coastal strip of the Gulf of Finland near the village of Ruchi, where it was cut into pieces and scuttled. Parts of the ship sticking out of the water were stolen by village residents for building materials and scrap metal in the late 80s.
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Armored cruiser of the 1st rank of the Baltic Fleet "Aurora" in St. Petersburg. The ship participated in several naval battles XX century and is considered one of the main symbols of the 1917 revolution. Since 1957, a branch of the Central Naval Museum.

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Opening hours

Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun - from 11.00 to 17.15
Mon, Fri - not working days

"Aurora" refers to the armored cruisers of the "Diana" class, built in Russian Empire at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. A total of three such ships were built: Diana, Pallada and Aurora. The last cruiser received its name in honor greek goddess dawn and in memory of the sailing frigate "Aurora", which gained fame during the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the years Crimean War. The name was personally chosen by Emperor Nicholas II from eleven proposed options.

The cruiser Aurora was laid down at the New Admiralty shipyard in 1896 and ceremonially launched in 1900 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and a 78-year-old sailor who once served on a frigate of the same name.

In 1903, the cruiser Aurora became part of the Russian Imperial Navy. The ship spent its first service in the Far East, and then was included in the Second Pacific Squadron. In 1905, the cruiser took part in the Battle of Tsushima, where it received significant damage, after which it went to Manila, Philippines, for repairs. In 1906, the Aurora returned to the Baltic Sea. In 1909-1912, the ship took part in a training cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, and since 1913, the cruiser became the flagship of the training detachment.

During the First World War, the cruiser Aurora took part in defensive activities and continued training cruises.

During the revolutionary events of 1917, power on the ship passed to the sailors, and management was carried out by an elected ship committee. During the October Bolshevik uprising, the Aurora fired the famous blank shot at the Winter Palace, which became the signal for the start of the assault.

After the revolution, the ship again became part of the training fleet, making several international voyages. During the Great Patriotic War and Leningrad blockade The cruiser became part of the air defense of Kronstadt.

In 1944, it was decided to install the Aurora near the Petrogradskaya embankment as a museum-monument to the history of the fleet and the base of the Nakhimov School. In 1957, the cruiser became part of the exhibition of the Central Naval Museum. The exhibition is located in six rooms of the ship; the conning tower, engine and boiler rooms are open to the public.

The cruiser is often mentioned in various works of art- songs and poems, and he also starred in films as the cruiser "Varyag".

The displacement of the cruiser "Aurora" is 6,731 tons, the length of the vessel is 126.8 meters, the width is 16.8 meters. Crew: 20 officers and 550 sailors.

The cruiser is included in the Unified State Register of Objects cultural heritage(historical and cultural monuments) of Russia.

Note to tourists:

A visit to the cruiser Aurora will be of interest to all tourists, and especially those interested in maritime history. In addition, next to the ship there are other city attractions - embankments, a monument to the 300th anniversary Russian fleet, house "Noble Nest", house of the Baltic Fleet.