The legendary cruiser Aurora was placed at the eternal berthing on November 17, 1948 and since than has been an inseparable element of the cityscape. Ship 1 of the Russian Navy, an active participant of three wars and Russian Revolution of 1917, has witnessed many events of the controversial 20th century history. Even nowadays the glorious past of this legendary ship arouses great interest not only in our country but abroad as well.
The Aurora's keel was laid down at the "New Admiralty" shipyard in Saint Petersburg in 1897 and three years later the cruiser was launched and joined Russian Navy. During the Russian-Japanese War the cruiser Aurora underwent the baptism of fire in the famous Tsushima battle. When she returned to the Baltic Sea, the Aurora for a long time was used as a ship for training cadets of the Naval College. During World War I the Aurora took an active part in the military actions on the Baltic Sea, and at the end of 1916 she was put in Petrograd's docks for repairs.
In Petrograd the Cruiser had appeared in the very center of Russian Revolution 1917. Being in close contact to the workers of a plant, the cruiser's seamen were involved in revolutionary propaganda. The Provisional Government wanted to move the cruiser from the revolutionary city, but failed to do this. On February 27(March 12 - according to the New Style) the crew demanded to release three imprisoned workers, accused of propaganda. The commanding officers refused and during the dispersal of the following meeting opened pistol fire on the rebels. Several sailors were wounded. When the crew had known about the occurred Revolution, sailors together with the workers hoisted the Red flag over the ship. The crew joined the revolt, and killed the commanding officer. Soon on the Aurora the Independent Ship Committee, headed by Bolsheviks, was elected. In October 1917 the political situation in the country had become aggravated again: the conflict between the Provisional Government and the Councils of workers', peasant's and soldiers' deputies had reached a deadlock. The majority of the Cruiser's sailors took part in the armed revolt of October 25, 1917. The legendary blank shot gave signal to the storm of the Winter Palace and marked the beginning of the new era in Russian history.
In the Soviet time the glorious ship served as training base for the cadets of high naval schools in Leningrad. It was planned to decommission the ship, but World War II broke out and the cruiser again took an active part in the dramatic events of the Russian history. During all the period of the Siege the Aurora stayed in Oranienbaum and repelled the attacks of German bombers by antiaircraft guns. The Cruiser had suffered a lot: the hull of the semi-flooded ship was greatly damaged.
The decision to restore the Cruiser as memorial of Revolution 1917 was reached before the war end. The ship was repaired and on November 17, 1947 she solemnly took up her place on the Bolshaya Nevka River in front of the Nakhimov Naval School.
The cruiser Aurora is a popular character of the soviet folklore. Simply to enumerate all the nicknames given by the citizens to the ship will take a plenty of time. They vary from quite inoffensive ("Cruiser of revolution", "Lenin's dreadnought" or "Geyser of revolution") to rather redoubtable ("Iron of communism" or "Frigate-on-the-blood"). A lot of myths and legends create the aura of mysticism around the ship that have played a fatal role in Russian history. In the middle of the 20th century the legend, that the Aurora had been replaced by her exact copy and the original ship had been sold to Germany to be recycled, was especially popular. The cruiser left its trace in people's phraseology, too. For example, a person, cunning and shifty, that could get out of any scrape, was characterized as "unsinkable as Aurora".
It is interesting to mention, that in post perestroika years when the symbols of the notorious past were furiously ruined, the Aurora stayed on its place - maybe because it had became so dear to the citizens or because the Petrogradskaya Embankment seemed to fail something without it.
By the way, the admission is free, and the rate of the thematic excursions around the Aurora is one of the lowest in the city.