Battle cruiser aurora. Stormy biography of the cruiser "Aurora

Aurora is a cruiser belonging to the Baltic Fleet. Although he took part in many historical events, he gained fame thanks to the October Revolution. It was the salvo of this ship that announced the advent of a new time in the history of our country. What was the history of Aurora?

Cruiser construction
Battle of Tsushima
Italian oranges
Aurora in World War I
The role of "Varangian"
Order with the cruiser "Aurora"

Cruiser construction

It took 6 years to build the cruiser. It was launched on May 11, 1900. But after that, finishing work was still carried out. Because of this, the Aurora entered the fleet only on July 16, 1903. It is worth noting that the Aurora does not have special combat qualities. She doesn't have high speed. So, squadron battleships of that period of time could reach a speed of 18 knots, and the Aurora moved at a speed of 19 knots. In terms of armament, eight 6-inch guns can be distinguished, which is also nothing special. And yet, the Aurora coped with its tasks of conducting reconnaissance and destroying enemy ships. In addition, she carried out sentinel service. She met the requirements of that time, having a solid displacement and excellent seaworthiness. With a full supply of coal in 1430 tons, the cruiser could easily reach Vladivostok from Port Arthur and at the same time return back.

The performance characteristics of the cruiser Aurora

Class	Cruiser 1st rank
Type	KR I "Pallada"
Shipyard	"New Admiralty", St. Petersburg
Laid down	May 23 (June 4 according to the old style), 1897
Launched	May 11 (24 according to the old style) May 1900
Entered service	July 16 (29 according to the old style) July 1903 (Baltic Fleet)
Full displacement	6 731 t
Length	126.7 m
Width	16.8 m
Draft	6.2 m
Mechanism power	11,971 hp
Speed	20 knots
cruising range	4,000 miles (7,200 km)
Fuel supply	964 tons of coal
Crew	570 people (of which officers - 20 people)

Battle of Tsushima

All cruisers were sent to the Pacific Ocean, where a military conflict with Japan was already brewing. The Aurora left Kronstadt on September 25, 1903. The crew of the cruiser included 559 people. They were commanded by the captain of the 1st rank I.V. Sukhotin. In the Mediterranean Sea, the ship became part of the detachment of Rear Admiral A.A. Virenius, under whose command were several destroyers, the cruiser "Dmitry Donskoy", the battleship "Oslyabya", the cruiser "Dmitry Donskoy" and several auxiliary ships. However, the detachment was late for the Far East. Upon arrival at the African port of Djibouti, it became known about the night attack by Japanese troops on the Port Arthur squadron. Thus the war began.

The Aurora returns to Kronstadt on April 5, 1904. Here she became part of the 2nd Pacific Squadron, commanded by Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky. He was preparing to be sent to the Far East. Six of the eight Aurora guns are covered by armored shields. This was done due to the fact that fragments of high-explosive shells destroyed the personnel of the ships. The captain of the 1st rank E.R. is appointed the commander of the ship. Egorieva.

October 2, 1904 "Aurora" as part of the squadron sent to Tsushima. Then the cruiser was part of the detachment of ships of Rear Admiral Enquist. Four Russian cruisers could not cope with the task, as they opposed first eight, and then sixteen Japanese ships. But a column of our battleships approached them.

At 14:30, the detachment engaged the third and fourth Japanese detachments. An hour and a half later, the cruiser came under fire from 2 Japanese ships from the first detachment and was seriously damaged. Additionally, Aurora enters the battle with the fifth Japanese squad.

At 16:30, the Aurora, together with the detachment, goes under the protection of Russian battleships. And an hour later, she is already taking part in the last phase of the battle. As a result of this battle, large shells hit the ship 10 times, and the crew suffered a loss of 15 people. 83 people were injured. The captain of the ship also died. The command is taken over by the captain of the 1st rank E.R. Egoriev. As a result of the entire battle, the Aurora received 37 holes. In futile attempts to go north, the Oleg and Aurora ships went to the neutral port of Manila, located in the Philippines. Later, the cruiser Zhemchug joined them. And on May 27, 1905, the ships were interned until the end of the war by the American authorities.

Italian oranges

The cruiser returned to her homeland only in 1906 at the height of the Russian revolution. In 1910, a unique event happened to the ship and its crew. During the overseas voyage, the Aurora called at the port of Messina. She arrived to receive a gold medal, since in 1908 Russian sailors participated in rescuing local residents from an earthquake. But on the very first night of arrival in the city, a strong fire broke out, and the sailors participated in saving the inhabitants from a new disaster. At the same time, the sailors arrived before the local firefighters. For this, the Italians rewarded the crew of the cruiser with lemons and oranges. Having gone after that to the Spanish Malaga, the sailors again extinguished the fire on the shore.

"Aurora" in the First World War

The cruiser met the First World War as part of the 2nd brigade of cruisers of the Baltic Fleet, which also included the cruisers Oleg, Bogatyr and Diana. The cruisers were entrusted with the function of patrolling at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland. On August 26, Russian ships achieved their first success when the German light cruiser Magdeburg landed on the rocks. Secret German ciphers were found that served the Russians and the British well. But already in October, German submarines appeared on the Baltic Sea. At that time, anti-submarine defense was practically non-existent. On October 11, 1914, the German submarine "U-26" discovered the cruisers "Aurora" and "Pallada". The commander of the German submarine evaluated both ships. And the "Pallada" seemed to him a more serious prey, so it was an armored cruiser. As a result of a torpedo hit on the Pallada, the magazines with ammunition detonated, and the cruiser sank. Aurora escaped this fate.

The role of "Varangian"

After the blockade of Leningrad was lifted in the summer of 1944, a decree appeared regarding the cruiser. It said that the Aurora was to become a museum-monument of the history of the fleet and at the same time a training ship based at the Nakhimov School. Petrogradskaya embankment was chosen as its location. But a new life as a museum at the cruiser began with the filming of the film. In 1945, the shooting of a film about the cruiser Varyag began. This role was given to Aurora. To do this, a fake pipe and additional equipment were installed on it. In 1948, the cruiser was installed at the Nakhimov School on Bolshaya Nevka. After 1960, the cruiser was included in the number of monuments protected by the state. At this time, the cruiser ceases to be the base of the Nakhimov School.

Order with the cruiser "Aurora"

In 1967, another significant event took place in the history of the cruiser. At this time, he became twice decorated. Before that, not a single ship was honored with such an honor. By the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, the cruiser received the Order of the Red Banner, and by the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, the Order of the October Revolution. Interestingly, the Aurora cruiser is depicted on the Order of the October Revolution. In August 1984, the cruiser was put in for a major overhaul, which was completed by the 70th anniversary of the revolution in 1987. Repair was necessary, as its underwater part was in critical condition. As a result, the bottom was rebuilt. As a result, the cruiser "Aurora" occupies a firm place in the history of Russia.

Today, the cruiser of the first rank "Aurora" is a museum ship and you can visit it in St. Petersburg on Petrogradskaya Embankment.

Museum opening hours:

Monday, Friday - days off
From Saturday to Sunday - from 10.30 - 16.00

The low October sky above the quiet northern city and the slender silhouette of a warship waiting for something... For more than 100 years, many representatives of the bourgeoisie and the ruling circles of all countries have been shivering from this picture. The armored cruiser "Aurora", born at the beginning of the turbulent twentieth century, received the same stormy biography.

The ship did not fight so much, but it saw three wars, and the victories behind it are those that would be enough for a whole fleet. "Aurora" is a ship that with one shot made its way into life for a new historical era.

Naval reinforcement projects

Aurora is the goddess of the dawn. The romantic name assigned to the cruiser, in a strange way, predetermined the fate of his country. Aurora was born at the turn of the eras. It was created for the time, determined to divide by force the already divided world. But in fact, the cruiser launched the era of raising to the top of the social ladder those who had previously been nothing.

New cruisers, including the Aurora, were built as part of the military program to strengthen the Russian fleet in 1895. There were objective reasons for the arms race - Russia had information about the buildup of the Japanese fleet, and foreigners should not have dominated the Baltic Sea.

The future world war was in the air. The Tripartite Alliance had already been created, the process of forming the Entente was beginning (in 1895, the Franco-Russian alliance was concluded). Spheres of influence had to be won back from competitors - there were no free places on the planet.

As part of the program to strengthen the fleet, it was supposed to build 3 armored cruisers of the 1st rank. All of them received ancient names - "Diana", "Pallas" and "Aurora". Why they were called that is unclear, but the king personally gave the order to do so.

Their laying took place in May 1897, on the same day, although the construction did not proceed synchronously. Aurora was listed as lagging behind - the work on its construction constantly lagged behind schedule.

Technical characteristics and disadvantages of the ship

The Aurora ship project assumed that the cruiser would become a worthy rival to enemy ships. The description of its characteristics looked convincing for its time:

Dimensions: draft - 6.2-6.4 m; width - 16.8 m; length - 126.7 m.
Normal displacement - 6731 tons, full - 7130 tons.
Personnel - 570 people (including 20 officers). The number of crew during the service varied slightly.
The power plant included three steam engines, each of which worked on its own propeller. The total power was almost 12 thousand hp.
The design speed was assumed to be up to 20 knots, in fact the cruiser did not develop more than 19.2 knots.
The initial armament of the cruiser consisted of eight 152 mm / 45 Kane guns, 24 Kane anti-mine guns of 75 mm caliber (barrel length 50 calibers), auxiliary artillery (eight 37 mm guns). To support the landing, there were two 63.5 mm Baranovsky cannons on wheeled carriages on board. Additionally, three 381 mm torpedo tubes were installed (one in the bow and one on each side). In 1904, the cruiser was equipped with a pair of 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns.
The protection of the ship consisted of an armor deck with a thickness of 38 to 63.5 mm. The thickening of the sheets was located above the critical sections of the structure. The command post was located in the conning tower, which had protection 152 mm thick. The shields installed later on the main caliber had a thickness of 25.4 mm.
Cruising range in economy mode - 4000 miles.

But there are tricks in these beautiful numbers. A speed of 20 knots was not enough for a cruiser at that time (the same Varyag, according to the project, was supposed to give out 23 knots, and Askold showed 24.5 knots in tests). Tests have shown that the ship does not even pull this figure - a speed above 19.2 knots was not recorded.

The cruiser's guns were deprived of armor protection. This shortcoming, however, was corrected before the ship entered the first battle - conclusions were drawn from the unfortunate fate of the same Varyag.

During the construction and service of the cruiser, changes were made to its weapons system. For example, the number of torpedo tubes was changed during the construction process - there were three of them instead of one. Significant changes were made during the First World War.

Ceremonial start of the service

The laying and launching of the Aurora took place in a solemn atmosphere. Delays in the production of works did not affect this.

The cruiser left the slipway (in May 1900) in the presence of Nicholas II and two empresses - the dowager and the reigning one.

The further course of work went worse. Completion and sea trials of the ship took another three years, and the cruiser entered service only in June 1903. The first exit to the sea took place even later - in September of the same year.

As part of the squadron of Admiral Virenius, the ship visited the ports of North Africa (Algiers, Suez). The trip revealed shortcomings and defects of steam engines, which had to be eliminated by the crew and coastal specialists.

And then the history of the ship began to develop mysteriously. "Aurora" was both a failure and a phenomenal lucky. She was constantly exposed to minor vicissitudes of fate, but remained relatively unscathed in serious trials.

Lucky Tsushima battle

The ship's first campaign was the Russo-Japanese War. And the biography of the cruiser in a strange way reflected the peculiarities of Russia's position in this war. The Aurora squadron got into the squadron immediately upon returning to the Baltic.

The cruiser became one of the few ships in the squadron that had the experience of a long-distance voyage.

At the same time, there is a change of commander - captain 1st rank E.R. Egoriev.

The Aurora learned about the beginning of the war in the Far East on January 31, 1904 during a stop in Djibouti. At the same time, an order to return was received. In April 1904, the ship returned to Kronstadt, and was immediately included in the squadron of Admiral Rozhdestvensky, who was leaving to fight Japan.

The campaign began with a bad omen. October 7, while passing by the British Isles, the squadron got into the fog. In conditions of poor visibility, the sailors confused the fishing ships and their own squadron mates with the enemy and began firing. At sea, such things are sarcastically referred to as "friendly fire." There were victims, and the ship's priest died on the Aurora.

This event, called the Hull Incident, led to a serious international scandal. And the squadron set off on a further journey with a bad parting word. Her path ended near the island of Tsushima.

Winner in a lost fight

The Tsushima battle was a disaster for the Russian fleet. But not for the Aurora cruiser. He took part in the battle, but remained afloat and escaped capture.

Admiral Rozhdestvensky, among his other mistakes, lined up the squadron incorrectly. As a result, many cruisers, including the Aurora, could not immediately join the battle and help their own at its initial stage. But then the ship entered the battle and bravely resisted the attacks of the Japanese cruisers on the transport ships of the Russian squadron. The flag was knocked down on it 6 times, but the team raised it again.

The ship was seriously damaged, but retained the ability to move independently.

At one point in the battle, cartridges caught fire on it, but the serving sailors managed to prevent an explosion of ammunition. The cruiser managed to reach the Philippines under its own power, where it was interned by the US military. But the team was allowed to carry out repairs.

Personnel losses were significant. 10 people were killed, 5 more later died of wounds. There were 80 wounded. But even here bad luck happened - the only officer who died was Captain 1st Rank E.R. Egoriev, the commander of the cruiser.

He was one of the first to die, and the cruiser fought under the command of first the senior navigator, and then the senior officer A.K. Nebolsin.

Revenge for neglect

It turned out that near Tsushima, the Aurora in a peculiar way took revenge on the commander of the squadron, Admiral Rozhdestvensky, for neglect. The squadron commander came up with a variety of, often offensive, nicknames for all the ships of his formation. He did not hesitate to call the ships "Idiots" and "Toadies" out loud. He especially "loved" Aurora, probably for her feminine name. Therefore, in his lexicon, the cruiser was designated as a fence ... a lady with low social responsibility.

At the same time, unbiased eyewitnesses noted that the cruiser makes a good impression, the team is hardworking and quick, order reigns everywhere.

They showed special dexterity on the ship in loading coal and always had fuel in reserve.

Fate restored justice. The Aurora team near Tsushima showed its best side, withstood a worthy dangerous battle and managed to save the ship. And at the very beginning of the battle, Rozhdestvensky practically lost control over its course. After the end of the war, he was put on trial for unprofessionalism, which led to the death of the squadron, and found guilty.

Naval Rescue Service

Upon returning to Russia in 1906, the Aurora was put in for repairs - work was not completed in Manila. In the course of the work, the armament was changed - all the useless 37 mm artillery was removed, leaving only two installations on the boats, and two 75 mm guns were removed. Two more 75 mm guns were removed, instead of which 152 mm mounts were installed. A relic of the sailing fleet - the combat mars, as well as onboard torpedo tubes, disappeared. Fire extinguishing systems and reservations have undergone improvements.

Between the Russo-Japanese and World War I, the Aurora performed somewhat unusual duties for a warship. Her team had to act as rescuers and firefighters.

In 1908, during a foreign raid, the ship's crew assisted the Italians who suffered from the famous Messina earthquake. In Italy, the help of Russian sailors was highly appreciated, and in 1910 they invited the cruiser to Messina in order to present the captain with a commemorative medal of honor.

But when the Aurora arrived in the city, a big fire suddenly started there. The cruiser team turned out to be quicker than the Italian firefighters and was the first to start extinguishing.
The Messinians did not have a second medal, and they expressed their gratitude in the form of 1800 oranges and the same number of lemons. With this pleasant cargo, the Aurora went to the Spanish port of Malaga, and well, a fire broke out there, which the cruiser's team also fought.

The time free from rescue activities was devoted to diplomacy.

The Aurora took part in the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of the monarch of Siam (1911), transported Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich from Italy, and was part of the squadron demonstrating international support for Crete. An important component of the ship's service between the wars was training trips with students of the Naval Corps.

World War at an inexpensive price

Formally, the cruiser fought through the entire First World War - the Aurora was part of the 2nd cruiser brigade. But there were few real battles during this period. One of the few combat episodes was the patrolling of the accident site of the German cruiser Magdeburg.

As part of the Aurora brigade, she went on cruising patrols. But she had to take part in the battles infrequently (mainly in the 1916 campaign of the year).

At the beginning of the war, the ship was equipped with rails and a hangar for storing 150 mines. The composition of the armament was also changed - 16 75 mm guns that became useless in battle disappeared, the openings in the sides were sealed. Instead, they installed four "six-inch" borrowed from "Diana". In the summer of 1915, new at that time "anti-aeroplane" guns of 40 mm caliber (one barrel) and 75 mm (four pieces) were installed on the ship.

But in the fall of 1916, it was put in for repairs, and the imperialist war for the Aurora de facto ended.

Less attractive target

The World War again demonstrated the strange luckiness of the ship. Such interesting facts mark his entire biography.

During the First World War, the Aurora did not receive significant damage.

But her "sister" "Pallada" sank in a few seconds from a torpedo hit from a German submarine.

Similar luck accompanied the ship during the Great Patriotic War. By the time the war began, the number of his team was only 260 people, then it decreased even more (sailors were sent to the front from an outdated ship). But still, it had 10 130 mm guns, 2 76.2 mm anti-aircraft guns, two general-purpose guns of the same caliber, 3 45 mm guns. In July, as the enemy approached Leningrad, 9 out of 10 main-caliber guns were brought ashore in the Duderhof area.

They were served by Auror sailors. The guns were named battery "A" (from the name of the cruiser). Since the beginning of September 1941, the battery has been actively attacking the approaching enemy. On the 11th of the same month, she was attacked by the enemy, but held out for 8 days, and the sailors, with a shortage of ammunition, tried to spoil the guns. Of the 165 battery personnel, only 25 survived the battle.

The cruiser itself was part of the Oranienbaum air defense system. The data on the results of its activities are inaccurate, but there is evidence that the Aurora managed to shoot down enemy aircraft.

At the same time, the Nazis did not pay much attention to her - just think, an ancient cruiser! And these are the Nazis, who understand the importance of ideology and the moral factor, dreaming of a symbolic parade on Red Square! For some reason, they did not guess that the moral impact of the sinking of the Aurora on the Red Army and the citizens of the USSR would be no less than from the fall of Moscow!

Of course, the ship was shelled. The Aurora has been under fire (air and artillery) since mid-September. She received significant damage, even sat down on the ground. The commander, captain of the 3rd rank Sakov, at the end of the month decided to take the team ashore, but was arrested and shot "for alarmism."

The team stayed on the cruiser until November, and then only the watch at the anti-aircraft gun was left.

However, the damage to the cruiser was not so severe that it sank. After the end of the blockade, the Aurora was removed from the ground and in 1944 put in for repairs.

Signalman of a new era

Children of the USSR listened to stories about the cruiser "Aurora" already in kindergarten. The reason was good - the ship was associated with the beginning of the revolution, was its recognized symbol.

Revolutionary moods arose on the ship during the first Russian revolution, during the stay in the Philippines and immediately after returning to Russia. But then the officers managed to calm the sailors, promising them an early demobilization (this was done) and familiarizing them with the tsar's manifesto of October 17. But the second revolution changed the situation.

During the beginning of the February Revolution of 1917, the cruiser was under repair near the Admiralty Plant. The sailors decided to support the strike that had begun there. But the commander, M.I. Nikolsky, had a different point of view. When the sailors disobeyed his order and tried to go ashore, he began to shoot at them with a revolver.

The case ended badly - the rebel team killed the captain. The riot also killed another officer. But this does not mean that anarchy reigned on the Aurora. The commanders were now elected by the ship's committee, but the cruiser remained fully operational.

Otherwise, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee would not have instructed him on the evening of October 24, 1917, to give a signal with a shot about preparations for the storming of the Winter Palace. To do this, it was necessary to move away from the factory pier and go along the river, which would not have been possible without proper leadership and well-coordinated work of the team. Also, the sailors of the Aurora carried out work on the reduction of the Nikolaevsky bridge, divorced by the cadets.

Killer Shot on the Past

A single shot near the Winter Palace at once turned the Aurora into the most famous ship in the world. Many legends are told about him. The Soviet government considered it the starting point of a new historical era. After the collapse of the USSR, the Aurora gun was condemned by a criminal who dared to shoot at the cultural heritage of mankind. But at the same time, few people know the details about this event.

It was supposed to serve as a signal for the beginning of the final stage of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. But not to storm the Winter Palace. The assault began later, and the gun only transmitted a signal of "combat readiness".

She did no harm to the building of the Winter Palace. By the time the revolution began in February, the ship was under repair, live shells were unloaded from it. Later they were not loaded because of the revolutionary mood in the team.

The shot was blank, and could not cause destruction! The goal was to capture the palace, not to destroy or damage it.

The Long Odyssey of the Symbol of Revolution

After her legendary shot, the Aurora remained in service. In addition to participating in the Great Patriotic War, she managed to accomplish many more glorious deeds and fulfill many controversial roles.

In 1923, the Aurora was re-equipped. The 152 mm main battery was replaced by 130 mm artillery.
The cruiser rounded the Scandinavian Peninsula in 1924 and came to Murmansk under a red flag. He acted on other countries then in the same way as he could act on a bull in a bullfight.
Since 1928, the Aurora has become a training ship - at first on the move, then (since 1935) laid up.
The ship is the star of the screen. He played himself in the film "October" (1927) and "Varyag" in (1946). For the sake of the last role, he was attached an additional fake pipe (Aurora had 3 of them, and Varyag had 4). Even for the smallest viewers, the animators of the USSR created the Aurora cartoon. It is now forgotten, but the song from it sounds and sounds: “The waves are steep, the storms are gray, the ships have such a share” ...
In 1948, Aurora turned into a residence for graduates of the Nakhimov School. Joining the cruiser team meant for them the last stage of preparation. Then the "Aurora" was laid up on Bolshaya Nevka. She was supposed to never leave this parking lot, but today changed the situation.
In 1956, a museum was opened on the ship - a branch of the Naval Museum.
Aurora was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and the Order of the October Revolution. The second award is all the more appropriate because the image of the cruiser is its most important part.
The cruiser was depicted on commemorative coins of 1967 dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the revolution.
After the collapse of the USSR, the cruiser turned into a recreation area for the "new" leadership of the city. This was not hindered even by the raising of the St. Andrew's flag over it in 1992. But the outrage did not last long. In 2010, Aurora finally acquired museum status. The ship is an object of Russian cultural heritage.

Evil tongues say that the current ship has nothing to do with the Aurora that fought near Tsushima and fired at Zimny. Say, numerous alterations turned it into a copy. Indeed, the old ship could not last 100 years without a major overhaul. In addition to the upgrades mentioned, the wooden parts of the hull and the metal sheathing of the underwater part were completely changed on the cruiser (they rotted from time to time).

After being put into eternal parking, running machines and boilers were removed from it, a significant part of the equipment was replaced with copies. The cruiser's guns are also copies - they only reflect the features of its original weapons. The guns were specially made according to old drawings and installed on the cruiser for the sake of historical authenticity.

But it is not important. Now the Aurora is not a combat unit, but a symbol. Its historical significance is not in the age of the metal and the reliability of the equipment, but in the actions performed by the crew of this ship.

Today, its appearance is quite consistent with the historical one.

This can be seen by looking at the surviving photographs, which depict the "Aurora" during the war with Japan and the campaign in Messina.

Veterans do not grow old in soul

You can treat the communist idea and the USSR in different ways. But there was something in the historical shot of the Aurora that does not allow us to move the old ship into the storeroom of history.

The whole world today knows where the Aurora cruiser is located and what it looks like. For 100 years, the magnitude of any historical event has been compared to its shot. Among the symbols of St. Petersburg, the Aurora ship is the youngest, but at the same time the most recognizable.

The silhouette of the cruiser is adorned with the Order of the October Revolution, which veterans of the Great Patriotic War and many important industrial enterprises are justifiably proud of. The older generation of Russians will never forget the purest young voice, the embodiment of their happy childhood: “What are you dreaming about, cruiser Aurora, at the hour when the morning rises over the Neva?”

In 2014, it was put in for another renovation. At the same time, Minister of Defense S. Shoigu stated that, among other things, the cruiser would be returned to running vehicles that had long been replaced by mock-ups. Having exchanged the second century of age, the Aurora is again ready to weigh anchor.

Every year on the Day of the Navy, the old cruiser receives a parade of Baltic ships - the unsinkable flagship of an invincible country.

Having become an official museum, the Aurora has not lost the status of a warship - there are no contradictions here.

"Aurora" will not leave the city on the Neva. Maybe she has changed since her legendary shot. But the cruiser continues to symbolize the same idea - the struggle for respect for work and people of work. Patrols in black pea coats with a formidable name on peakless caps are ready to come after those who profit unjustly and are greedy beyond measure. Isn't that what the old cruiser is dreaming about now?

Video

"Aurora" and the October Revolution in the minds of the inhabitants of our country are inseparable from each other.

But ask a passer-by on the street about the battle path of the legendary cruiser - he will not answer. Meanwhile, the true story of the Aurora is amazing, almost unbelievable...

1. SURVIVED "TWIN SISTERS"

In the year of the centenary of the revolution, the Aurora cruiser itself celebrates the round date. It was laid down in 1897 at the New Admiralty shipyard.

Over the 120 years of its history, Aurora managed to take part in three revolutions and two world wars, successfully surviving to this day, which cannot be said about its two older sisters.

The cruiser "Aurora" was built third after two similar cruisers - "Diana" and "Pallada". Shipbuilding work was carried out as part of the program "to equalize our naval forces with the German and with the forces of the secondary states adjacent to the Baltic."

The first armored cruisers of Russia had rather average military and driving characteristics. Diana and Pallada were the first to go on combat duty in 1903, reinforcing the Russian squadron in Port Arthur on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War.

During the heroic defense of the city, "Diana" and "Pallada" took an active part in it. On July 28, 1904, the squadron began an attempt to break through towards Vladivostok. "Diana", escaping from the battle, went to Saigon.

Returning to Russia, she took part in the First World War. After the revolution in 1922, the cruiser was sold to a Soviet-German joint-stock company and dismantled for scrap.

"Pallas" suffered a no less sad fate. Unable to escape from the besieged Port Arthur, she was blown up along with other ships after the decision was made to surrender the fortress.

2. "DAUGHTER" OF THE EMPEROR

Since the time of Peter I, naming large ships of the Russian fleet has been the prerogative of the autocrat. Aurora is no exception. Nicholas II was given a choice of eleven proposed names: "Aurora", "Askold", "Bogatyr", "Varangian", "Naiad", "Juno", "Helion", "Psyche", "Polkan", "Boyarin", " Neptune". After a moment's hesitation, the emperor succinctly wrote in the margin: "Aurora."

Why did the choice fall on the name of the ancient Roman goddess of the dawn? On this occasion, there is such a version: the cruiser was actually named after the sailing frigate Aurora, which participated in the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky from the superior forces of the English squadron during the Crimean War in 1854.

By the way, the total cost of building the Aurora was 6.4 million rubles in gold.

3. THREE YEARS TO REFINE

The ceremonial launching took place on May 11, 1900. On the upper deck of the ship, as part of the guard of honor, there was a 78-year-old sailor who served on the Aurora frigate.

However, until 1903, the Aurora was installing the lead machines, general ship systems and weapons. Only after that, the cruiser set off on her first long-distance voyage along the route Portland - Algiers - Bizerte - Piraeus - Port Said - the port of Suez.

In January 1904, the formation of Rear Admiral Virenius, which included the Aurora, received news of the outbreak of war with Japan and an order to return to the Baltic.

4. Crocodiles and Midshipmen

At home, the Aurora crew immediately received an order to immediately go to Vladivostok to help the Pacific squadron.

During a previous trip, while in an African port, the sailors took on board two pets - crocodiles named Sam and Togo. Various competitions were arranged with them, they tried to tame them, but in vain. The first crocodile escaped from the ship during training, the second was killed during the Battle of Tsushima on May 14, 1905.

On that fateful day, 50 ships of the Russian squadron entered the Korea Strait. When the Japanese cruisers opened heavy fire on the Russian transport ships, the Aurora, together with the flagship Oleg, entered the battle. They were assisted by "Vladimir Monomakh", "Dmitry Donskoy" and "Svetlana".

Unfortunately, the battle was lost. The captain of the cruiser Yevgeny Egoriev was killed. During the battle, several compartments of the ship were flooded, the guns were disabled, and a fire broke out on the cruiser. But the Aurora did not sink - she even tried to break through to Vladivostok. However, the fuel reserves were only enough to reach the Philippine Islands, where the cruiser was interned by the Americans in the port of Manila.

Only on October 10, 1905, after the end of the war with Japan, the Andreevsky flag was again raised on the ship, the Americans released the cruiser to their native shores. Until 1913, the ship remained a training ship for midshipmen and made long trips to Thailand and the island of Java.

5. CRUISER OR AIR DEFENSE ELEMENT?

Having fallen into the category of veterans, the Aurora became part of the ships on which the sentinel service of the fairways from the Gulf of Finland to the Botanichesky was assigned. But the Aurora still had to fight in the First World War, however, in a very unusual way. She played the role of air defense in the fight against low-flying low-speed enemy aircraft. And the cruiser coped with the task brilliantly.

6. THE STORM OF THE WINTER COST WITHOUT "AURORA"

For a long time it was believed that a salvo from the Aurora in October 1917 served as a signal for the start of the assault on the Winter Palace, but this is not so.

In September 1916, the Aurora stood up to the wall of the Admiralty Plant for repairs. At the end of February 1917, a strike began at the plant. Wanting to prevent possible unrest on the cruiser, its commander Nikolsky opened fire with a revolver on the sailors who arbitrarily decided to leave the ship, was killed by the crew, and a mutiny broke out on the cruiser.

From that moment on, the command of the Aurora was elected by the ship's committee. On the eve of the revolutionary events on October 24, 1917, the Aurora passed up the Bolshaya Neva to the Nikolaevsky Bridge, preventing the junkers from taking possession of it.

The ship's electricians brought together the openings of the bridge, connecting Vasilyevsky Island with the city center. It was assumed that on October 25 at 21.40 the cruiser would fire a couple of blank shots, meaning “Attention! Readiness.

The cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress fired first, and only then the legendary blank shot was fired from the Aurora in the direction of Zimny. But he had nothing to do with the beginning of the assault.

The shot, as the Pravda newspaper later confirmed, was only to call on the revolutionary masses to be vigilant. The assault on the palace began a few hours later. The signal to him was given by volleys of guns from the Peter and Paul Fortress, two of which hit the windows of the palace.

7. VETERANS DO NOT AGE IN SOUL...

In 1922, it was decided to use the Aurora as a training ship for the Baltic Fleet. In 1924, already under the Soviet flag, the ship made a long trip around Scandinavia past Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. By 1941, they wanted to exclude the veteran cruiser from the fleet, but the war prevented this decision.

Some of the guns were removed from the cruiser and used both on other ships and as part of land batteries. On July 9, 1941, a special-purpose artillery battery was formed, known in the history of the defense of Leningrad as battery "A" after the capital letter of the cruiser's name. Unfortunately, the same gun from which a blank shot was fired at the Winter Palace was lost in the battles.

In 1944, the cruiser "Aurora" was forever installed on the Neva as "a monument to the active participation of the sailors of the Baltic Fleet in the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government." The cruiser took its place of eternal parking only on November 17, 1948, after it depicted another revolutionary cruiser, the Varyag, in the cinema.

Today, after another scheduled repair, the legendary cruiser Aurora has returned to its place of eternal parking.

Dmitry Sokolov.

TOPFOTO/FOTODOM,

The main event in the history of the Aurora cruiser is considered to be a blank shot, which became the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace during the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Much less is known about the main military event in the history of the cruiser - the participation of the Aurora in the Tsushima battle, tragic for the Russian fleet.

The Aurora is undoubtedly a lucky ship. The cruiser, whose technical characteristics were significantly inferior to the most modern ships of that time, not only managed to survive the battle, but also avoided the shameful participation of lowering the flag in front of the victorious enemy.

The ship, which was launched on May 24, 1900 in the presence of the emperor Nicholas II and empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna, was accepted into the Russian fleet in June 1903 and by the time the Russo-Japanese War began, it was one of the newest.

The latest, but by no means the most perfect. Problems with the Aurora began at the design stage and never ended. The deadlines for the construction of the vessel were repeatedly disrupted, and when it came to testing, the engineers clutched their heads from a huge number of shortcomings and shortcomings. Due to the congestion of state-owned shipyards in St. Petersburg, where the Aurora was being built, work on its construction was carried out in a hurry and at the same time with a lack of workers.

The machines and boilers of the Aurora turned out to be unreliable, the cruiser never reached the planned speed indicators, and there were many questions about the armament of the ship.

Peter Pickart

The ship "Lefort". Unknown artist

I. K. Aivazovsky. "Death of the ship

K. V. Krugovikhin "The wreck of the ship" Ingermanland "August 30, 1842 off the coast of Norway", 1843.

I. K. Aivazovsky "The ship" Twelve Apostles ". 1897

First trip

The tests of the cruiser continued in early 1903, and it took a lot of time to bring the Aurora to perfection, but it was not there. The aggravated situation in the Far East required the immediate strengthening of the Pacific squadron, for which a special detachment of ships was formed in the Baltic. The Naval Ministry intended to include the Aurora in this detachment, for which it was ordered to complete the tests as soon as possible.

On June 16, 1903, the Aurora officially became part of the Russian Imperial Fleet and was almost immediately included in the detachment of Rear Admiral Virenius, focusing on the Mediterranean Sea for the speedy follow to Port Arthur.

September 25, 1903 "Aurora" under the command of the captain of the 1st rank Sukhotina left the Great Kronstadt raid, going to join the detachment of Virenius.

Cruiser "Aurora" on trial June 14, 1903. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

In this campaign, the Aurora had a lot of technical malfunctions, including regular problems with the machines, which caused extreme dissatisfaction with the command. While in Suez, the crew was forced to fix problems with the steering gear. In Djibouti, on January 31, 1904, the Aurora found the news of the outbreak of war with Japan, and on February 2, the highest order to return to Russia.

The Aurora reached the Russian military base in Libau on April 5, 1904, where her first campaign ended.

Aurora's ship's priest died from "friendly fire"

The military situation for Russia was developing unfavorably, and the Russian command decided to form the Second Pacific Squadron, which was to pass through three oceans and change the situation in the maritime theater of operations.

At the Aurora, work was carried out to eliminate technical shortcomings and strengthen weapons. The new commander of the Aurora was the captain of the 1st rank Evgeny Egoriev.

On October 2, 1904, the Second Pacific Squadron left Libava in four separate echelons to proceed to the Far East. "Aurora" led the third echelon of ships, consisting of the destroyers "Imperfect" and "Bodry", the icebreaker "Ermak", the transports "Anadyr", "Kamchatka" and "Malaya". On October 7, Russian ships were divided into small detachments. "Aurora" was in the 4th detachment under the command of Rear Admiral Oscar Enquist and was supposed to move along with the cruiser "Dmitry Donskoy" and transport "Kamchatka".

The tension that prevailed on Russian ships led to the fact that in the North Sea, off the coast of Great Britain, the Russian squadron mistook fishing ships for enemy destroyers. In the ensuing chaos, the Russian sailors fired not only at the fishermen, but also at each other.

As a result of such "friendly fire" "Aurora" was damaged, and the ship's priest Father Anastasy was mortally wounded.

Coal loading record holders

The rest of the trip went fairly smoothly. The team on the Aurora got close-knit, which was greatly facilitated by its commander.

Chief ship officer doctor Kravchenko wrote in his diary: “The first impression of the Aurora is the most favorable. The team is cheerful, cheerful, looks straight into the eyes, and not frowningly, does not walk on the deck, but flies straight, following orders. All this is good to see. At first, I was struck by the abundance of coal. There is a lot of it on the upper deck, and even more in the battery deck; three-quarters of the saloon are littered with it. The stuffiness is therefore unbearable, but the officers do not even think to lose heart and not only do not complain about the inconvenience, but, on the contrary, proudly inform me that so far their loading cruiser has been the first, took the first prizes and is generally in very good standing with the admiral.

Leisure on the Aurora was provided by an amateur theatrical troupe of sailors and officers, whose performances were highly appreciated by sailors from other ships.

The crew of the Aurora was also very strong in the matter of loading coal. So, on November 3, 1300 tons of coal were loaded onto the Aurora in conditions of unbearable heat at a rate of 71 tons per hour, which was the best result in the entire squadron. And in the last days of December 1904, with a new load of fuel, the sailors of the Aurora broke their own record, showing a result of 84.8 tons of coal per hour.

If the mood of the crew and its preparation did not cause anxiety among Captain Egoriev, then this could not be said about the ship itself. The infirmary and the operating room were so badly arranged that they could not be used at all in the tropics. It was necessary to adapt new premises, to arrange their possible protection from artillery fire. All provisions were concentrated in almost one place, and therefore, if this part of the ship was flooded, 600 people would be left without food. Much of this kind had to be corrected. On the upper deck, it was necessary to arrange protection from the hits of wooden fragments of the masts and traverses from the same nets with sailor bunks from the spare Bullivin anti-mine nets to protect the servants of the guns. The inner wooden shields of the sides were broken and removed, which could give a lot of fragments, ”the Aurora commander wrote in March 1905, when a meeting with the enemy was already approaching.

The captain of the Aurora was one of the first to die

On May 1, 1905, the Second Pacific Squadron, after some reorganization and brief preparations, left the shores of Annam and headed for Vladivostok. "Aurora" took her place on the right outer side of the column of transports in the wake of the cruiser "Oleg". On May 10, in complete calm, the last coal loading took place, coal was taken with the expectation of having a reserve at the entrance to the Korea Strait, which should have been enough to Vladivostok. Soon after the separation of the transports, the cruisers Oleg, Aurora, Dmitry Donskoy and Vladimir Monomakh, together with the third armored detachment, formed the left wake column.

On the night of May 14, 1905, the Russian squadron entered the Korea Strait, where Japanese ships were already waiting for it.

For the Aurora, the Battle of Tsushima began with a skirmish with Japanese ships at 11:14. At the beginning of the battle, Aurora supported the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh with fire, which was firing with the Japanese reconnaissance cruiser Izumi, forcing the latter to withdraw.

With the advent of the third and fourth Japanese detachments, which launched an attack on Russian transports, the Aurora, covering the transport ships, found itself under heavy enemy fire. The cruiser received the first damage.

But it was really hard for the crew of the Aurora at about three o'clock in the afternoon, when the Japanese ships managed to get close and put the Russian cruisers under crossfire. Damage followed one after another, as a result of one of the hits, a fire started dangerously close to the bomb cellar, fraught with an explosion of ammunition. It was only thanks to the dedication of the sailors of the Aurora that the catastrophe was averted.

At 15:12, a 75-millimeter shell hit the gangway of the forward bridge. Its fragments and fragments of the ladder fell through the viewing slot into the wheelhouse and, reflected from its dome, scattered in different directions, injuring everyone in the wheelhouse. The commander of the Aurora, Captain 1st Rank Evgeny Romanovich Yegoriev, was mortally wounded in the head and soon died. One of the senior officers took command of the ship.

The crew did not drop the honor of the flag

Twenty minutes later, the Aurora barely dodged an enemy torpedo. The impact of a 203-mm Japanese projectile resulted in holes, as a result of which the compartment of the bow torpedo tube was flooded.

Despite losses and damage, the Aurora continued to fight. Fragments knocked down the flag of the ship six times, but the Russian sailors again hoisted it into place.

At about half past five in the evening, the Russian cruisers were covered from Japanese fire by a column of Russian battleships, which gave the Aurora crew time to catch their breath.

The final artillery battle ended at about seven in the evening. The defeat of the Russian squadron was obvious. The surviving ships did not retain the overall formation and control, the remaining part of the squadron left the battlefield, literally in all directions.

By the evening of May 14, her commander Yevgeny Yegoriev, as well as nine sailors, died on the Aurora. Five more sailors died from their wounds. 8 officers and 74 lower ranks were injured.

By ten in the evening, the cruising detachment of Admiral Enquist consisted of three ships - in addition to the Aurora, these were Oleg and Zhemchug. In the dark, Japanese destroyers tried to attack Russian ships, and the Aurora had to dodge Japanese torpedoes more than ten times during the night of May 14-15.

Admiral Enquist several times he tried to turn the cruisers to Vladivostok, but the Japanese blocked the way, and the naval commander no longer believed in the possibility of a breakthrough.

The dead were buried at sea

As a result, the cruisers headed southwest, leaving the Korea Strait and breaking away from the enemy destroyers.

The night was hot for the doctors of the Aurora: those who, in the heat of battle, did not pay attention to the wounds, reached out to the infirmary. Those who remained in the ranks were engaged in minor repairs, waiting for new attacks by the Japanese.

During the Battle of Tsushima, the Aurora fired 303 152mm, 1282 75mm and 320 37mm shells at the enemy.

At noon on May 15, Admiral Enquist and his staff moved to the Aurora, taking command of the cruiser that had lost its commander. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, sailors who died and died from wounds were buried at sea; the body of Captain Egoriev was going to be buried on the shore.

Two hours later, a military squadron was noticed from the Aurora, which was initially mistaken for the Japanese, but the ships turned out to be American - the Philippine port of Manila was under US control. On the same day, the Aurora and other Russian ships anchored in the port of Manila.

Damage to the Aurora received in the Tsushima battle. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Hostages of Manila

The United States in the Russo-Japanese War officially took a neutral position, but tacitly expressed support for Japan. Therefore, on May 24, an American Admiral Tran received a directive from Washington - Russian ships must either disarm or leave the port within 24 hours.

Admiral Enquist asked Petersburg and received the following answer: “In view of the need to repair the damage, I allow you to give an obligation to the American government not to participate in hostilities. Nicholas."

In this situation, this decision was the only correct one - the damaged Russian ships could no longer change the situation that had developed after the defeat at Tsushima. The war was approaching a disappointing outcome for Russia, and it was already pointless to demand new victims from the sailors.

On May 26, 1905, the Aurora team gave the American administration an undertaking not to participate in further hostilities, the gun locks were removed from the cruiser and handed over to the American arsenal. The war for the crews of Russian ships is over.

40 wounded from the Aurora were sent to an American hospital. A few days later, hired local workers began to repair the cruiser.

Return

The longer the forced stay in Manila continued, the more discipline fell on the Aurora. News of the revolutionary unrest in Russia caused ferment among the lower ranks, which the officers managed to calm down with difficulty, but still.

The repair of the Aurora was completed in August 1905, shortly before the peace treaty between Russia and Japan was signed in Portsmouth. Russian ships began preparations for returning home. The captain of the 2nd rank was appointed the new commander of the Aurora barsch.

On October 10, 1905, after the final approval of the Russian-Japanese treaty by the parties, official Washington lifted all restrictions on the actions of Russian ships.

On the morning of October 15, the Aurora, as part of a detachment of ships that were ordered to return to the Baltic, headed for Russia.

The return trip was also lengthy. New 1906 "Aurora" met in the Red Sea, where she received an order to go to Russia on her own. At the same time, 83 sailors from the cruiser Oleg, who were subject to demobilization, went on board. After that, the Aurora turned into a real “demobilization cruiser” - from the crew of the Aurora itself, about 300 lower ranks were to be demobilized upon their return to Russia.

In early February 1906, while staying in the French Cherbourg, an incident occurred that prophetically indicated the future glory of the Aurora as a ship of the revolution. The French police received information that the ship's crew had purchased a batch of revolvers for the revolutionaries in Russia. A search on the Aurora, however, yielded no results, and the cruiser continued on her way home.

On February 19, 1906, the Aurora anchored in the port of Libava, completing the longest military campaign in its history, which lasted 458 days.

On March 10, 1906, after the dismissal of all sailors subject to demobilization, a little more than 150 people remained in the crew of the cruiser. "Aurora" was transferred to the fleet reserve.

11 and a half years remained before the main shot of the cruiser ...

The ship of the Navy number one returned after repairs at the Kronstadt Marine Plant to its eternal mooring at Petrogradskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg. All work on it has been successfully completed. The pride of the Russian fleet, the favorite of the Northern capital, has restored its former architectural and historical appearance. And this is an important sign that we are finally starting to preserve the relics of our own history, regardless of the turns of the ideological conjuncture. The ship, which in Soviet times personified the start of the victorious October Revolution, after the completion of the reconstruction, returns to the center of St. Petersburg to decorate the sea capital and give rich food for thought and a reason for pride to representatives of various generations and cultures.

Ship number one of the Russian Navy was handed over to him in the presence of Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Admiral A.N. Fedotenkov and towed to St. Petersburg. The acceptance certificate following the results of the repair of the Aurora was signed on July 15, 2016 in a solemn ceremony at the Kronstadt Marine Plant.

The operation to return the ship to the place of eternal parking was carried out at night, when the water level in the Neva is at its highest. The cruiser "Aurora" left the Kronstadt Marine Plant at 21.00.

The cruiser was escorted to the place of eternal parking by five tugs, one of which was assigned to the Leningrad naval base, diving and fire boats.

"Aurora" was the first to go to the planned drawing of bridges from 15 to 16 July. All other ships entering and leaving the Neva missed the legendary cruiser. The schedule for the night passage of the ship along the Neva was agreed in advance with the schedule for the drawing of the bridges - Blagoveshchensky, Palace and Troitsky.

In the dead of night, the ship, with full illumination, approached its mooring place, where a complex operation was carried out to unroll it and wind it up to the mooring place between four installed barrels, establish mooring lines and set up a gangway bridge weighing 17 tons. All these actions were completed by the morning of July 16.

For the return of the cruiser, the place of its parking was prepared by special boats from the Leningrad naval base. Measurements carried out by naval hydrographs and navigational calculations showed that the depth reserve under the keel of the Aurora near Petrogradskaya Embankment would be 1.75 meters. This, according to the sailors, guarantees the safety of the anchorage of the ship of the first rank. While the Aurora was not in place, the city reconstructed the Petrogradskaya embankment and inspected the communications to which the cruiser was connected.

The performance characteristics of the cruiser "Aurora"

"Aurora" is an armored cruiser of the first rank of the Baltic Fleet of the "Diana" type. Built at the New Admiralty in St. Petersburg in 1903.

The cruiser "Aurora" was armed with 42 guns of four different calibers, three torpedo tubes. Its total displacement is 7130 tons, and the thickness of the armor is from 63.5 mm on the deck to 152 mm on the wheelhouse. He could go at a speed of 19.2 knots, and his maximum range was 4,000 nautical miles. The crew of the cruiser consisted of 570 people, including 20 officers. The cruiser is 126.8 meters long, 16.8 meters wide and has a draft depth of 6.4 meters.

The history of the service of the cruiser "Aurora"

The Aurora received its baptism of fire during the Russo-Japanese War - it was one of two Russian ships that survived the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905. After the war in 1906, the cruiser returned to St. Petersburg and became a training ship on which practice of cadets and midshipmen of the Naval Corps. Small-caliber artillery was partially removed from the ship, two 152-mm guns were added.

With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the cruiser became part of the 2nd cruiser brigade of the Baltic Fleet, conducted artillery firing and carried out sentinel service. By the summer of 1914, fourteen 152-mm guns and four 75-mm anti-aircraft guns were installed on the Aurora.

After the October Revolution

On November 7 (October 25, O.S.), 1917, the ship found itself in the center of revolutionary events: it is believed that the blank shot of the Aurora was the signal for the Bolsheviks to capture the Winter Palace. However, according to the testimony of a number of eyewitnesses of the events, the assault then began without a signal from the ship.

Cruiser "Aurora": the pride of the Russian fleet

After the revolution, the cruiser was in the reserve of the fleet, its guns were removed and transferred to the armament of the Volga flotilla. In 1922, it was decided to restore the Aurora as a training ship.

In this capacity, the cruiser received ten new 130 mm guns and became part of the Baltic Fleet Naval Forces.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. the personnel and guns of the Aurora took part in the defense of Leningrad, and the ship itself, which was in Oranienbaum, was included in the air defense system of Kronstadt, having received new anti-aircraft guns. After being hit by several artillery shells on September 30, 1941, the ship landed on the ground in the Oranienbaum harbor.

Training base and museum ship

In October 1948, after the refurbishment, the Aurora was put into eternal parking at the Petrogradskaya embankment in Leningrad. Until 1956, the cruiser was the training base of the Leningrad Nakhimov School. On July 5, 1956, the Ship Museum was opened on the ship by the forces of personnel and veterans as a branch of the Central Naval Museum. In 1960, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the ship was taken under state protection as a historical and revolutionary monument and became one of the symbols of the 1917 revolution and Leningrad. In particular, his image was placed on the Order of the October Revolution, the cruiser itself was awarded this order in 1968.

In the first half of the 1980s. the Aurora hull fell into disrepair, and in 1984 repair and restoration work began. On August 16, 1987, the cruiser was returned to its place of parking.

On July 26, 1992, the Andreevsky naval flag returned to the Russian Navy was raised on the ship.
In the 1990s - 2000s. about 500 thousand people annually visited the museum on the cruiser "Aurora", more than 2 thousand excursions were held. Over a thousand historical exhibits and documents were stored on board the ship. The exposition includes 10 flags and banners of the ship, 14 orders and 24 medals, which were awarded to members of the cruiser's crew in different years. An exhibition of gifts from government, military and public organizations from different countries was opened. Over 30 million people from more than 160 countries of the world have visited the museum during its operation.

On December 1, 2010, by order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the cruiser was withdrawn from the combat strength of the Navy and transferred to the balance of the Naval Museum. The military unit serving on the ship was disbanded. February 6, 2012 "Aurora" was included in the federal state institution of culture and art "Central Naval Museum" of the Ministry of Defense as a branch.

The history of repairs of the cruiser "Aurora"

The historical armored cruiser Aurora, which operated as part of the Russian Imperial and then the Soviet Baltic Fleet, was repeatedly repaired at the docks of the Kronstadt Marine Plant and other plants in St. Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad. The results of the last one can be seen today.

"Aurora" in a concrete shirt. Repair from 1945 to 1947.

The ship met the Great Patriotic War at the wall in the harbor of Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov) on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. In the second half of September 1941, during massive German air raids, the cruiser received holes, shells exploded in the hold. Having taken on board thousands of tons of water, the ship landed on the ground and remained in a semi-flooded state almost until the end of the war.

In 1944, a decision was made to restore the cruiser as a monument to the revolution. In the summer of 1945, the Aurora was raised, the water was pumped out, and the holes were patched up. The condition of the Aurora was difficult: after an emergency repair, the cruiser leaked and again sat on the ground. The ship was towed to Kronstadt, where it was docked at the Marine Plant.

In the autumn of 1945, the cruiser was transferred to Leningrad, where repair and restoration work continued until the end of 1947.

During the overhaul, the appearance of the ship changed, approaching what it had in 1917. Aurora's superstructures were restored, including the complete replacement of the chimneys, badly damaged during the war. They installed weapons, the same type as those that stood in 1917, but on coastal machines. The bow bridge was restored, the wooden flooring of the upper deck was made of pine. Significant changes have also taken place inside the ship. Worn-out boilers were removed from the Aurora, replaced with two new ones, two of the three main steam engines were dismantled, the armored shafts of the engine and boiler rooms, and part of the auxiliary mechanisms were cut and removed. In total, about a thousand tons of various mechanisms were unloaded from the cruiser.

The changes especially affected the underwater part of the hull. A survey conducted in 1945 showed that she was in a condition that allowed her further operation afloat. It was decided to achieve water resistance with the help of internal concreting of the skin.

Sealing damage to the hull with concrete was considered the most effective and durable in those years. Sealing work was carried out by the workers of the Sudobetonverf plant afloat, simultaneously with other work carried out in the surface part of the hull. Concreting was preceded by laborious cleaning of surfaces. Then, steel reinforcement from bars 6–8 mm in diameter was welded to the set, forming a grid with cells 70x70 mm, and concrete from high-grade cement was poured into it. Reinforced concrete cladding was carried out along the entire inner surface of the outer skin to approximately one meter above the waterline. The result was a waterproof concrete "shirt" with a thickness of 50 to 90 mm and a weight of about 450 tons.

Since November 1947, the ship was placed on the Bolshaya Nevka near Petrogradskaya Embankment (now Petrovskaya Embankment). For many years, the Aurora served as a training base for cadets of the Nakhimov Naval School.

The museum on the Aurora began to be created in 1950 by personnel, veterans and enthusiasts. Since 1956, the museum exposition of the cruiser has become a branch of the Central Naval Museum.

Stay afloat. Refurbishment from 1984 to 1987

By the end of the 1970s, the problem reappeared: the outer underwater part of the hull corroded, the inner concrete "shirt" cracked in many places and lost its tightness. The ship began to receive water, which had to be pumped out using pumps. The question of repair arose with a new urgency.

Relevant work from 1984 to 1987 was carried out by the Leningrad Shipbuilding Plant. A.A. Zhdanov () on the project. The repair was preceded by survey and design work. In the Central State Archive of the Fleet, specialists studied about 6,000 files from 13 funds, more than 500 drawings, descriptions, documents, albums on mechanical installations and artillery weapons.

According to the developers of the repair project, the cruiser was an engineering structure that lived according to the laws and traditions of the naval service. So, while maintaining it, it was necessary to read such qualities as strength, unsinkability, fire safety and resistance to aggressive environmental factors.

“It was decided to restore the ship not in the form of a frozen monument, but as a living story of the historical days of the Great October Revolution, to keep the cruiser afloat under the flag of the USSR Navy with the preservation and updating of the museum,” wrote Victor Burov, scientific supervisor of the work on the restoration and preservation of the Aurora . However, this approach assumed strict requirements for the condition of the hull, mechanisms and installations.

The concept of the Aurora as a monument ship afloat as part of the fleet was diametrically opposed to the concept advocated by numerous opponents.

In short, their proposals were reduced to a sparing repair and careful restoration of the hull, equipment and mechanisms.

Several options for protection from environmental influences were proposed: from placing the cruiser on an underwater pedestal to creating a floating underwater dock.

As a result, the arguments of the developers of the repair project were accepted - the collapsing underwater part up to 1.2 m above the waterline was considered unsuitable for repair and cut off. The new underwater part was made from modern materials. The wooden and copper parts of the hull plating were not recreated. The new underwater and old surface parts of the hull were connected by welding.

The surface part was divided into four sections installed on the new underwater part. A boiler room was created in the engine room, placing museum exhibits there - models of two boilers of the Belleville - Dolgolenko system and elements of the stoker equipment.

They put in order and installed the stern main machine. The carapace deck was re-made. Most of the old armor plates returned to it.

But the most important task was to recreate the external architectural and historical appearance and internal structure of the ship on the eve of the October Revolution.

All upper-deck structures and equipment were restored: artillery mounts, deckhouses, bridges, a radio station, boat and searchlight weapons, emergency and mooring devices, cargo devices, etc. Significant work was required to recreate the internal premises associated with the combat activities of the cruiser. The pipes and masts of the cruiser were made from scratch. However, those that stood before the repair were also not original - they were installed in the late 40s. It was decided to leave the guns on coastal machines.

Almost all of the interior of the ship was redesigned. On the battery deck there is a museum compartment with an exposition and working rooms for employees, a team catering unit with a galley, an officer's quarters, a wardroom and a commander's saloon. Below, on the living deck, are the living quarters of the crew, equipped to meet the habitability requirements of a modern Navy. The systems of communications, electricity, fire extinguishing have been modernized.

According to the developers of the repair, the technology used made it possible to use genuine hull parts to the maximum extent. For example, the contours and such unique structures as a bronze cast stem and archer stem with a rudder blade were completely preserved.

The task of reviving to the greatest possible extent the appearance of the historical cruiser and the details of its design, armament, equipment from the time of 1917 was recognized as completed. After repair and restoration work, which lasted three years, "Aurora" in August 1987 was returned to its parking place - on the Petrogradskaya embankment near the Nakhimovsky VMU.

The results of the repair by specialists and the public were perceived ambiguously.

The main claim of opponents is that, in their opinion, the work carried out was a rework, not a restoration.

Many drew attention to the loss during the repair of many valuable pieces of equipment and mechanisms of the historic Aurora, and the decision to leave the cruiser afloat was also criticized, while it could be installed on an underwater pedestal or in a special floating dock.

The decision to cut off the entire underwater part and attach a welded new one is still especially objectionable, especially since the old cut-off part was treated really barbarously. It was not dismantled and not disposed of, but along with many preserved parts of the equipment, they were left to rust in one of the bays near St. Petersburg. Until now, the huge, more than a hundred-meter, remains of the historical Aurora look out from the waters of the Gulf of Finland. This gives many people reason to call the current Aurora a dummy or model of an old cruiser.

Rumors do not subside that there are two "Aurora" - a fake current one and a drowned real one. In any case, according to estimates, no more than 40% of the historical Aurora remained.

However, if many criticisms are true, it must be taken into account that over the hundred years of its existence, the ship has been rebuilt, modernized and re-equipped more than once. That is, by 1984 it was far from the original, launched in 1900.

Repair of the museum ship in 2014–2016

The cruiser was towed for repairs to the Kronstadt Marine Plant on September 21, 2014. According to the Aurora Board of Trustees, the cost of repairing the cruiser amounted to about 840 million rubles, which were used to renew the ship's hull and create a new exposition of the branch of the Central Naval Museum operating on the Aurora.

The shipbuilders carried out the most significant amount of work in the interior of the Aurora. The museum exposition was updated, the cruiser's crew quarters were restored, and modern video monitoring and fire extinguishing systems were installed. According to experts, in the future, Aurora will need to dock every 5-10 years to assess the thinning of the hull over time.

Carrying out repair work on the Aurora at the Kronstadt Marine Plant in 2014–2016, unlike all previous repairs, did not imply any interference with the ship’s structure, rebuilding the hull, or radical re-equipment of the interior. The repair concept is based on the perception of the historical cruiser as an operating ship of the fleet, a monument ship afloat.

In the fall of 2014, the cruiser was docked. Particular attention was paid to a thorough examination of the state of the hull, especially its underwater part, and mechanisms in contact with the external environment. An ultrasonic examination of the hull found that over the years that have passed since the last repair, the dynamics of hull corrosion is practically absent.

An examination of the bottom-outboard reinforcement led to the decision to completely replace it. During the dock repair, the outer hull of the ship, the underwater and surface parts were cleaned and painted. In addition, tanks, tanks and a number of other mechanisms were repaired, pressure testing and a tightness check of the adjoining bronze rods and a steel body were carried out. Despite the fact that the stems were made during the years of the ship's construction, no damage was found. An examination of the hull connections made in 1987 revealed their quality.

The re-docking of the Aurora was carried out in the spring of 2016. Of the major repair tasks, it is necessary to single out the examination of power cable routes, the replacement of the electrical network, the repair of decks, masts and all life support systems of the ship, the installation of spars, the replacement of rigging, the repair of boat devices, boats, boats, the restoration of the superstructure, hull structures and practical things.

During the repair, not only the ship itself was updated, but also its life support systems. In particular, it is equipped with the latest domestic water mist fire extinguishing system. It provides extinguishing fires with high-pressure water mist, or the so-called water mist with a droplet size of less than one hundred microns and is not inferior to the best foreign samples in terms of characteristics. The new video surveillance system of 52 cameras almost completely eliminates the possibility of unnoticed entry into the ship.

The main work was carried out by the specialists of the Marine Plant.

Museum ship

In 1956, it was decided to establish a museum of naval and revolutionary glory on board the legendary cruiser, and to store exhibits in the exposition of this unusual cruiser museum that will help to trace its glorious history in detail: documentary photographs, ship items and documents that represent great historical value.

In 1960, the Aurora became one of the monuments protected by the state. In 1968, she was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, on which she herself was depicted. Since 2013, the cruiser has been returned to the Navy. On board the cruiser is a branch of the Central Naval Museum.

During the repair, which was completed in July 2016, the historical appearance of the flagship cabin was restored, the design project of which was approved by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy. Redecoration was carried out in the cockpits of the crew and the wardroom.

In addition to dock work and updating the ship's equipment, the museum part has been redone. Updated teak deck,

During the repair, a new museum exposition was created on board the Aurora. It has been expanded, and its character has also been changed. If earlier the museum spoke about the Aurora primarily as a cruiser of the October Revolution, now it presents the ship as a veteran of three wars: the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, the First World War and the Great Patriotic War.

A new part of the exposition was the medical block, where X-ray equipment was used for the first time in Russia.

The exposition site is provided with lighting, air conditioning systems, etc. The exposition has been increased from 6 to 9 halls. Expositions saturated with multimedia equipment have been created.

The stern of the Aurora was adorned with a new order flag, developed by the heraldic service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

The ship is an object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation. The cartoon "Aurora" was filmed about him, and he was also shown in the film "Cruiser" Varyag "". "Aurora" is dedicated to a number of songs, she is depicted on many postage stamps, both Soviet and foreign. In addition, the image of the cruiser was minted on commemorative coins of 1967 in denominations of 10, 15 and 20 kopecks.