Aurora team. History of the cruiser "Aurora". After the October Revolution

);10 × 130 mm guns, 2 × 76.2 mm anti-aircraft guns (1924)

His Imperial Majesty and Their Imperial Majesties Empress Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna, having examined the cruiser "Aurora", deigned to watch her descent from the Imperial Pavilion.

At the command “detainees to chop”, the ship freed from props, with the commander and crew on it, at first slowly, then faster, began to descend astern forward, with the sounds of the national anthem, shouts of “hurray” and cannon salutes of military ships standing at a distance.

As the ship left the boathouse, the flags were raised on it, and the standard of His Majesty was on the main mast. Then the anchors were dropped and the ship stopped.

The cruiser of the 1st rank "Aurora" is a ship of exactly the same type as the cruisers "Diana" and "Pallada" launched last year.

Its displacement is 6.682 tons. Longest length with ram - 414 feet, width - 55 feet, recess - 55 feet. The cruiser will be equipped with 3 vehicles of 3,870 forces, so that the total force will reach 11,610.

The total supply of coal for the ship is 972 tons. The Aurora team will consist of 320 people with 30 officers.

Its armament will consist of eight 6-inch, twenty-four 75-mm, eight 35-mm single-barreled and two 2 1/2-inch guns (Baranovsky). In addition, the vessel will have three mine vehicles, of which 2 are underwater and 1 is surface.

Its full moving weight during the descent was 3.621 tons.

From the New Admiralty, Their Imperial Majesties deigned to depart on a steam boat to the Baltic Shipyard.

From autumn to spring of the year, the ship was on the second long-distance training voyage along the route Libau - Christiansund - Vigo - Bizerte - Piraeus and Poros - Messina - Malaga - Vigo - Cherbourg - Libau.

From the autumn of 1911 to the summer of the year, the Aurora went on the third long-distance training voyage to participate in the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of the King of Thailand (November 16 - December 2 of the year), visited the ports of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the spring and summer of 1912, the cruiser was part of the international squadron of the “protecting powers” ​​of Crete, stood as a Russian stationer in Souda Bay (Crete).

World War I and Revolution

She took part in the First World War. With the outbreak of war, the cruiser under the command of Captain 1st Rank G. I. Butakov became part of the 2nd cruiser brigade Baltic Fleet, conducted artillery firing and carried out sentinel service. In the winter of 1914/1915, it was modernized, the number of 152-mm guns was increased to 14. During the 1915 campaign, the cruiser was on patrol west of the central mine and artillery position in the Baltic, guarding minesweeping operations, made trips to study hidden skerry fairways in Finland. Since May 1916, the cruiser was assigned to the 6th maneuver group (armored cruiser Gromoboy, cruisers Aurora and Diana). On August 1 and 2, he conducted training firing at the firing range near Heinland Island to find out the possibility of destroying coastal wire obstacles with naval artillery fire during the planned landing operation. After dredging was completed on the Moonsund Canal, on August 14, 1916, the cruiser was transferred by this canal to the Gulf of Riga and became part of the Naval Defense Forces of the Gulf of Riga, based on Kuivast. At the end of 1916, the ship was sent for serious repairs to Petrograd, to the Franco-Russian plant. During the winter of 1916-1917, steam engines were overhauled, new steam boilers of the Belleville-Dolgolenko system were installed. The artillery of the main caliber was modernized with an increase in the firing range from 53 to 67 cab. 6 76.2-mm anti-aircraft guns of the F.F. Lender system were installed, a new radio station was mounted.

The cruiser was one of the first to join the February Revolution and raised the red flag. On February 28 (March 13), 1917, as a result of a collision with sailors, the commander of the ship, Captain 1st Rank M.I. Nikolsky, and senior officer P.P. Ogranovich were killed. A revolutionary committee was created on the ship, most of the crew joined the Bolsheviks.

On the night of October 25, 1917, on the orders of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Aurora team captured and brought down the Nikolaevsky Bridge in Petrograd, which connected Vasilyevsky Island with the city center. On October 25, at 21:45, a blank shot from the Aurora's bow gun, fired on the orders of Commissar Belyshev, gave the signal to storm the Winter Palace. On November 28 (December 11), 1917, the Aurora, after repairs, returned to the 2nd cruiser brigade in Sveaborg. After the decree on the dissolution of the old fleet and the organization of the new RKKF on a voluntary basis, most of the team was demobilized. Only 40 people remained on the ship, necessary for ongoing work and protection. In 1918, the cruiser was transferred to Kronstadt and mothballed.

Since the spring of the year, the cruiser has been mothballed, and in the year the Aurora again becomes a training ship. At the same time, however, the cruiser was repaired and radically rearmed in 1924 - the outdated 6 "guns on it were replaced with new Russian 130-mm guns with outstanding characteristics for that time.

During the Great Patriotic War, the guns were dismantled from the cruiser and used to protect Leningrad from the Nazis, the feat of the Aurora gunners on the Pulkovo Heights is known. The cruiser itself was fired upon on 30 September 1941 and sank in the port of Oranienbaum. After the war, it was raised and restored.

At Soviet power the cruiser Aurora became a training cruiser and was revered as one of the symbols of the revolution. The fate of this cruiser is told by the children's cartoon of the same name (1976), the song from which "What are you dreaming about, the cruiser Aurora?" gained popularity and became strongly associated with the ship. Since 1948, the restored ship has been permanently moored on Bolshaya Nevka (opposite the Nakhimov School) and enjoys the attention of tourists. Since 1957 it has been a branch of the Naval Museum. In 1984, the cruiser was again sent for a major restoration, which lasted until 1987. After the restoration of the cruiser, rumors spread for some time that the real cruiser was allegedly not restored and was sunk in the Gulf of Finland, and a copy or another restored ship of this series was installed in its place. These fabrications could only be born in the inflamed brain of a "perestroika" fighter for publicity, their delusion is obvious to any specialist in the history of the fleet, since the Aurora's sisterships died more than half a century before the restoration began. The basis for the rumors was the fact that the underwater part of the cruiser was completely replaced along with the power set, while the old underwater part was available for viewing to onlookers for some time before disposal. Similarly, during the restoration process, some superstructures were cut off and other superstructures and bridges were mounted, since the purpose of the restoration was to bring the cruiser to the design form for 1917, which, however, does not mean that a replica was assembled instead of the historical ship, as some especially gifted believe " connoisseurs of the question.

cruiser commanders

• Cap. 1st rank rank A. A. Melnitsky (November 1897 - October 1898),
• cap. 1st rank P.P. Molas (October-November 1878, November 1898 - January 1900),
• VRID commander cap. 1st rank A.P. Kitkin (January-June 1900),
• cap. 1st rank N.K. Jenish (June-December 1900),
• cap. 1st rank I. V. Sukhotin (January 1901 - July 1904),
• cap. 1st rank E. R. Egoriev (July 1904 - 05/14/1905, died),
• VRID commander cap. 2nd rank A.K. Nebolsin (May 14 - September 1905),
• cap. 1st rank V. L. Barshch (September 1905 - May 1908),
• cap. 1st rank Baron V.N. Ferzen (May 1908 - January 1909),
• cap. 1st rank P.N. Leskov (January 1909 - December 1912),
• cap. 1st rank L. D. Opatsky (August-December 1912),
• cap. 1st rank D. A. Sveshnikov (December 1912 - April 1913),
• cap. 1st rank V. A. Kartsev (April 1913 - July 1914),
• cap. 1st rank G. I. Butakov (July 1914 - February 1916),
• cap. 1st rank M. I. Nikolsky (February 1916 - 02/28/1917, killed by sailors),
• senior lieutenant N.K. Nikonov (elected, March-August 1917),
• Lieutenant N. A. Erickson (elected, September 1917 - July 1918),
• VRID commander of the RKKF M. N. Zubov (since July 1918),
• commander of the RKKF L. A. Polenov (November 1922 - January 1928),
• commander of the RKKF A.F. Leer (January 1928 - September 1930),
• commander of the RKKF G. I. Levchenko (September 1930 - June 1931),
• commander of the RKKF A.P. Alexandrov (June-December 1931),
• VRID commander of the RKKF K. Yu. Andreus (December 1931 - March 1932),
• commander of the RKKF A. A. Kuznetsov (March 1932 - October 1934),
• cap. 2nd rank V. E. Emme (October 1934 - January 1938),
• cap. 2nd rank G. N. Arseniev (January-September 1938),
• cap. 2nd rank F. M. Yakovlev (September 1938 - August 1940),
• cap. 3rd rank G. A. Gladky (August 1940 - March 1941),
• cap. 3rd rank I. A. Sakov (March-September 1941),
• senior lieutenant P. S. Grishin (October 1941 - July 1943),
• cap. 2nd rank P. A. Doronin (July 1943 - August 1948),
• cap. 1st rank F. M. Yakovlev (August 1948 - January 1950),
• cap. 2nd rank V. F. Shinkarenko (January 1950 - February 1952),
• cap. 2nd rank I. I. Popadko (February 1952 - September 1953),
• cap. 2nd rank N. P. Epikhin (September 1953 - August 1959),
• cap. 1st rank I. M. Goylov (September 1959 - July 1961),
• cap. 2nd rank K.S. Nikitin (July 1961 - May 1964),
• cap. 1st rank Yu. I. Fedorov (May 1964 - May 1985),
• cap. 2nd rank A. A. Yudin (May 1985 - November 1989),
• cap. 1st rank A. V. Bazhanov (since November 1989).

Haven't you heard about it? Let's find out where the legs grow from these conversations. And first, let's recall the history of this warship.

For several generations of Soviet (and not only Soviet) people, the name of this cruiser has become a kind of fetish. legendary ship who announced with his salvo the offensive new era in the history of mankind, the symbol of the Great October Socialist Revolution is the most replicated cliché. And what is the actual history of the cruiser "Aurora"?

At the end of the 19th century, the Russian navy grew and was replenished with new ships. According to the classification of that time, there was such a subclass of cruisers - armored, that is, having an armored deck to protect vital parts of the ship from enemy artillery fire. The armored cruisers did not carry side armor and were not intended for a duel with battleships. It was to this type of warships that the cruiser Aurora, laid down on May 23, 1897 in St. Petersburg (in the New Admiralty), of the same type with the previously laid down Pallada and Diana, belonged.

In the Russian Navy, there was (and still is) a tradition of succession in the names of ships, and the new cruisers inherited the names of sailing frigates. The construction of the ship took more than six years - the Aurora was launched on May 11, 1900 at 11:15, and the cruiser entered the fleet (after completion of all outfitting work) only on July 16, 1903.

This ship was by no means unique in its combat qualities. Neither a particularly frisky speed (only 19 knots - squadron battleships of that time developed a speed of 18 knots), nor weapons (8 six-inch main caliber guns - far from amazing firepower) the cruiser could boast. Ships of another type then adopted by the Russian fleet ("Bogatyr") armored cruisers were much faster and one and a half times stronger. And the attitude of officers and crews towards these "goddesses of domestic production" was not too warm - the cruisers of the "Diana" type had a lot of shortcomings and constantly arising technical problems.

Nevertheless, its intended purpose is to conduct reconnaissance, destroy enemy merchant ships, cover battleships from attacks by enemy destroyers, patrol service - these cruisers were quite consistent, having a solid (about seven thousand tons) displacement and, as a result, good seaworthiness and autonomy. With a full supply of coal (1430 tons), the Aurora could, without additional bunkering, go from Port Arthur to Vladivostok and return back.

All three cruisers were intended for Pacific Ocean, where a military conflict with Japan was brewing, and the first two of them were already in the Far East by the time the Aurora entered service with the existing ships. The third sister also hurried to her relatives, and on September 25, 1903 (just a week after the staffing ended on September 18), the Aurora with a crew of 559 people under the command of Captain 1st Rank I. V. Sukhotin left Kronstadt.

Armored cruiser "Aurora", 1903

In the Mediterranean, 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 vessels. However, on Far East the detachment was late - in the African port of Djibouti, on Russian ships, they learned about the Japanese night attack on the Port Arthur squadron and the start of the war. It was considered too risky to proceed 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 meet Virenius in the Singapore area and go with them to Vladivostok, and not to Port Arthur, but this quite reasonable proposal was not accepted.

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

Admiral Rozhdestvensky was, let's say, an original personality. And among the many "quirks" of the admiral was the following - he had a habit of giving the warships entrusted to him nicknames that were very far from examples of belles-lettres. So, the cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov" was called the "Idiot", the battleship "Sisoy the Great" - the "Invalid Shelter", and so on. The squadron consisted of two ships with female names- the former yacht "Svetlana" and "Aurora". The commander nicknamed the first cruiser "The Maid", and the "Aurora" was even awarded the obscene title "Fence Prostitute". If only Rozhdestvensky knew what ship he names so disrespectfully!

Damage to the bow of the cruiser "Aurora" in the Battle of Tsushima, June 1905

"Aurora" was in the detachment of cruisers of Rear Admiral Enkvist and during the Tsushima battle conscientiously carried out the order of Rozhdestvensky - she covered the transports. This task was clearly beyond the capacity of the four Russian cruisers, against whom first eight, and then sixteen Japanese ones acted. They were saved from a heroic death only by the fact that a column of Russian battleships accidentally approached them, driving away the pressing enemy.

In the Battle of Tsushima, the Aurora fired 303 152mm, 1282 75mm and 320 37mm shells at the enemy. During the battle, the cruiser received 18 hits from shells of various calibers, but he managed to escape from the encirclement and go to Manila, where he stood disarmed until the end of the war.

The cruiser did not distinguish itself with anything special in battle - the author of the damage attributed to the Aurora by Soviet sources that the Japanese cruiser Izumi received was actually the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh. The Aurora itself received about a dozen hits, had a number of injuries and serious losses in people - up to a hundred people were killed and wounded. The commander died - his photograph is now exhibited in the museum of the cruiser, framed by a steel sheet pierced by a fragment of a Japanese shell and charred deck planks.

Cruiser 1st rank "Aurora" on the roads of Manila after the battle of Tsushima, June 1905

At night, instead of covering the wounded Russian ships from the frenzied mine attacks of the Japanese, the cruisers Oleg, Aurora and Zhemchug broke away from their main forces and headed for the Philippines, where they were interned in Manila. However, there is no reason to accuse the cruiser's crew of cowardice - the responsibility for the flight from the battlefield lay with the bewildered Admiral Enquist. Two of these three ships subsequently sank: Zhemchug was sunk in 1914 by the German corsair Emden in Penang, and Oleg was sunk by English torpedo boats in the Gulf of Finland in 1919.

The Aurora returned to the Baltic at the beginning of 1906, along with several other ships that had survived the Japanese defeat. In 1909-1910, the Aurora, together with the Diana and the Bogatyr, was part of the foreign navigation detachment, specially designed for midshipmen to practice. Marine Corps and the Naval Engineering School, as well as students of the Training Team of non-commissioned officers.

Cruiser Aurora". Holes in the area of ​​​​the 75-mm gun No. 7 of the starboard side, June 1905

The Aurora team did not participate in saving the inhabitants of Messina from the consequences of the 1908 earthquake, but Russian sailors from the Aurora received a medal for this feat from grateful residents of the city when the cruiser visited this Sicilian port in February 1911. And in November 1911, the Aurors took part in the celebrations in Bangkok in honor of the coronation of the Siamese king.

In 1910, the cruiser accompanied the imperial yacht to Riga.

“At the end of the first hour, the Imperial yacht Shtandart, sailing in the wake of the cruiser Aurora, began to slowly approach its mooring place opposite the Tsar’s Quay. Exactly at 2 p.m., the Imperial yacht anchored. From the warships accompanying the yacht, the sounds of music were heard. The city was ringing with bells."
Newspaper "Rizhsky Vestnik", July 5, 1910

The cruiser underwent its first modernization after the Russo-Japanese War, the second, after which it took on its current appearance, in 1915. The artillery armament of the ship was strengthened - the number of 152-mm main-caliber guns was first brought to ten, and then to fourteen. Numerous 75-mm artillery was dismantled - the size and survivability of destroyers increased, and three-inch shells no longer posed a serious danger to them.

The cruiser was able to take on board up to 150 mines - mine weapons were widely used in the Baltic and proved their effectiveness. And in the winter of 1915-1916, a novelty was installed on the Aurora - anti-aircraft guns. But the glorious cruiser might not have survived until the second modernization ...

Armored cruiser "Aurora" in 1916

The Aurora met the First World War 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 High Seas Fleet into the Gulf of Finland and an attack on Kronstadt and even St. Petersburg. To counter this threat, mines were hastily laid, and the Central mine-artillery position was equipped. The cruiser was assigned the task of carrying out patrol service at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland in order to timely notify of the appearance of German dreadnoughts.

The cruisers went on patrol in pairs, and at the end of the patrol period, one pair replaced the other. The Russian ships achieved their first success already on August 26, when the German light cruiser Magdeburg landed on stones off the island of Odensholm. The cruisers Pallada arrived in time (the older sister of the Aurora died in Port Arthur, and this new Pallada was built after the Russo-Japanese War) and the Bogatyr tried to capture the helpless enemy ship. Although the Germans managed to blow up their cruiser, Russian divers found secret German ciphers at the accident site, which served both the Russians and the British in good stead during the war.

But a new danger awaited Russian ships - since October, German submarines began to operate 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 an invisible enemy hiding under water, and how to avoid his sudden attacks. There were no diving shells, let alone depth charges and sonars. Surface ships could only rely on the good old ram - after all, they should not take seriously the developed anecdotal instructions, in which it was prescribed to cover the sighted periscopes with bags and fold them 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 ending its patrol service, and the Aurora, which had come up 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 much more tempting prey than the veteran of the Russian-Japanese war.

A torpedo hit caused a detonation of ammunition cellars 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 cover in the skerries. And again, do not blame Russian sailors for cowardice - as already mentioned, they still did not know how to fight submarines, and the Russian command already knew about the tragedy that happened ten days earlier in the North Sea, where a German boat sank three English armored cruisers at once. The Aurora escaped death for the second time - fate clearly kept the cruiser.

It is not worth dwelling on the role of the Aurora in the events of October 1917 in Petrograd - more than enough has been said about this. We only note that the threat to shoot the Winter Palace from the guns of the cruiser was pure bluff. The cruiser was under repair, and therefore all the ammunition was unloaded from it in full accordance with the instructions in force. And the stamp "Aurora salvo" is purely grammatically incorrect, since a "volley" is simultaneously fired shots from at least two barrels.

The Aurora did not take part in the civil war and in battles with the English fleet. An acute shortage of fuel and other types of supplies led to the fact that the Baltic Fleet was reduced to the size of a bunker - an "active detachment" - consisting of only a few combat units. "Aurora" was withdrawn to the reserve, and in the fall of 1918, part of the guns from the cruiser were removed for installation on makeshift gunboats river and lake fleets.

At the end of 1922, the Aurora, by the way, the only ship of the old imperial Russian fleet that retained its name given to it at birth, was decided to be restored as a training ship. The cruiser was repaired, ten 130-mm guns were installed on it instead of the previous 6-inch guns, two anti-aircraft guns and four machine guns, and on July 18, 1923, the ship entered sea trials.

Then for ten years - from 1923 to 1933 - the cruiser was engaged in a business already familiar to him: cadets were practicing on board naval schools. The ship made several foreign voyages, participated in the maneuvers of the newly resurgent Baltic Fleet. But the years took their toll, and due to the poor condition of the boilers and mechanisms, the Aurora became non-self-propelled after another repair in 1933-1935. training base. IN winter time it was used as a floating base for submarines.

During the Great Patriotic War the old cruiser stood in the harbor of Oranienbaum.

The guns were once again removed from the ship, and nine of them installed on coastal battery"one hundred and thirty" defended the approaches to the city. The Germans did not pay much attention to the decrepit veteran, trying first to disable the best Soviet ships (such as the Kirov cruiser), but the ship still received its portion of enemy shells. On September 30, 1941, the half-sunken cruiser, damaged as a result of artillery shelling, sat down on the ground.

Cruiser "Aurora" in Oranienbaum, 1942

But the ship again - for the third time in its more than forty years of history - survived. After the blockade of Leningrad was lifted in July 1944, the cruiser was brought out of a state of clinical death - they were lifted from the ground and (for the umpteenth time!) Put in for repairs. Boilers and onboard machines, propellers, side shaft brackets and the shafts themselves, as well as part of the auxiliary mechanisms, were removed from the Aurora. They installed the weapons that were on the ship in 1915 - fourteen 152-mm Kane guns and four 45-mm salute guns.

Now the cruiser was to become a monument ship and at the same time the training base of the Nakhimov School. In 1948, the repair was completed, and the restored Aurora stood where it stands to this day - to Petrogradskaya Embankment opposite the building of the Nakhimov School. And in 1956, the Ship Museum was opened aboard the Aurora as a branch of the Central Naval Museum.

The Aurora ceased to be a training ship for pupils of the Leningrad Nakhimov School in 1961, but it retains the status of a museum ship to this day. long voyages and naval battles are a thing of the past - the time has come for a well-deserved and honorable pension. Such a fate rarely falls to a ship - after all, ships usually either die at sea, or end up at the wall of the plant, where they are cut for scrap ...

IN Soviet years, of course, the main (yes, perhaps, the only) attention was paid to the revolutionary past of the cruiser. Images of the Aurora were present wherever possible, and the silhouette of the three-pipe ship became the same symbol of the city on the Neva as the Peter and Paul Fortress or Bronze Horseman. The role of the cruiser in every possible way was extolled. October revolution, and there was even a joke joke: "Which ship in history had the most powerful weapons?" - "Cruiser" Aurora "! One shot - and the whole power collapsed!".

In 1967, the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was widely celebrated in the Soviet Union. In Leningrad, bonfires were burning near Smolny, near which, leaning on rifles, stood people in soldier's overcoats and in jackets of revolutionary sailors of the seventeenth year with an indispensable attribute - with machine-gun belts crossed on their chests and on their backs.

The cruiser "Aurora" follows the location of the film "Aurora Volley", 1967

It is clear that the well-deserved ship simply could not be ignored. For the anniversary, the film "Volley of the Aurora" was made, where the cruiser played the main role - itself. For greater authenticity of the events depicted, all filming was done on location. The Aurora was towed to a historical place to the Nikolaevsky bridge, where the episode of the capture of the aforementioned bridge by the Aurors was filmed. The spectacle was impressive, and thousands of Leningraders and guests of the city watched the gray three-pipe beauty slowly and majestically float along the Neva.

However, the "Aurora" itself was not the first time to act as a movie star. Back in 1946, during the repair, "Aurora" played the role of the cruiser "Varyag" in the film of the same name. Then the Aurora, as a true actress, even had to disguise herself as her character - they removed the shields from the guns (there were none on the Varyag), and installed a fourth fake pipe to make the image of the most heroic cruiser of the Russian-Japanese war true.

The last repair of the Aurora took place in the mid-80s of the last century, and rumors about the “fake Aurora” are connected with this. Let's find out in more detail how it was.

The first major overhaul of the Aurora took place immediately after the Second World War at the shipyards of Kronstadt. Almost all the guns were replaced with new ones, the ship repairmen changed the wooden deck and completely re-equipped the interior, in which the Nakhimovites settled. Soon, however, the question arose of new repairs. The iron hull of the Aurora simply rotted away. In the hold of the ship, pumps were constantly working, pumping out several tens of tons of water every day. By the early 1980s, it became clear that it was simply impossible to keep the Aurora in its original form.

Restoration of the Aurora began in 1984. Powerful tugboats removed the cruiser from the eternal parking lot and dragged it to the Northern shipyard. There, at the docks, the cruiser of the revolution was simply cut into pieces. The lower part of the vessel, including the entire underwater part, was completely replaced with a new one. Severe alteration was subjected to what was above the water. TO anniversary date The Aurora returned to its usual place, and then the question arose of what to do with the skeleton left at the shipyard. Scrapping of the Revolution cruiser Soviet times would consider ideological sabotage. So they decided to hide the real Aurora from the eyes of the people.

In the last trip, the cruiser set off along the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland in 1987. The military brought him to the village of Ruchi, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland in the Luga Bay. Before the Great Patriotic War, a naval base was being built there, designed to reduce the load on Kronstadt. Leaving territories to the advancing fascists, in September 1941, Soviet troops blew up all ground buildings. Neither our engineers nor the Germans, who left these territories a few years later, however, were unable to destroy the huge piers on the Gulf of Finland. Until recently, they were used as a sump for warships.

For some time the legendary cruiser stood near the huge pier. This, however, did not last long. At first, the Aurora was slowly taken away by the military, and then they actually gave the ship to be plundered by the workers of the Baltika fishing state farm operating in these places.

I remember very well the events of those days, - says Vladimir Yurchenko, former chief mechanic of the Baltika fishing state farm. - Our superiors agreed with the military and one fine day we were sent to cut the Aurora. We were allowed to take whatever we could carry. At the state farm, they even shouted “Men! Aida "Aurora" cut! Many responded. We removed the property from the ship by trucks. First of all, the metal ladders were removed. Copper plating was torn off from the surface parts - then the entire ship was covered with a layer of sheet copper. The situation in the interior was practically untouched. In one of the showers, for example, I removed tiles from the floor and walls. Later I tiled the floor in the bath with this tile. Many took the doors along with the jambs and took out the portholes.

The new lower part of the Aurora's hull at the shipyard's dock.

Restoration repair of the cruiser "Aurora" at the plant named after Zhdanov, 1984-1987

Looted by the military and fishermen, the skeleton of the ship, like the skeleton of a giant fish, stood at the old pier for several months. The cruiser of the revolution was destined for a completely unenviable end. A brilliant idea came into someone's bright head in a military cap. Load the metal hull with stones and sink it into the harbor, turning it into a breakwater.

The bay in these places is indeed quite restless, - says Vladimir Yurchenko. - In spring and autumn, it is quite difficult to land on the shore, and a breakwater is really needed here. That's just because of the mistakes made by the workers, nothing good came of this venture. The ship loaded with stones went to the side, and then completely capsized and sank at all where it was planned. Now this is real garbage lying in the coastal strip. Later, local merchants wanted to raise the hulk, cut it up and sell it abroad as scrap metal, however, the military forbade any work to be done in their harbor.

Anyone can find the remains of the cruiser of the revolution, lying in the coastal strip, without any difficulty. In the surrounding villages, anyone can show the current location of the Aurora.

Against the background of the wreckage, tourists are eagerly photographed, who are brought into a rather remote part of the Kingisepp district. In the summer, local boys recklessly climb the iron frame. At low tide, the hull, stretching 120 meters in length, is visible in its entirety. At high tide, the waves hit only a small section of the bow with fastenings for ropes.

Near the giant concrete piers, two half-abandoned buildings still rise. In one, sailors occasionally appear, in the other, a retired military man, Vasily Mochalov, has been living for six years. In the mid-1990s, a migrant from Moldova lost his home and documents in a fire. Having occupied an empty house, he fishes himself and helps local fishermen manage the nets. According to Vasily Stepanovich, scuba divers examine the flooded Aurora almost every year.

This summer, some guys who came from Belarus dived here for almost a week, - says Vasily Mochalov. - True, they did not find anything interesting and began to remove the copper plates that were preserved in the once underwater part. They said that they would cut them into small pieces and sell them as souvenirs. Even under water, they found an old iron and gave it to me in gratitude for staying. He is unlikely to interest museum workers, but it is very possible to stroke them by glowing on a tile.

However, in order to find souvenirs from the Aurora, it is not at all necessary to go underwater with scuba gear. All you need to do is walk through the nearby villages and take a closer look at the houses built in the late 1980s. Parts of the ship turned into building materials are visible here and there. The ladders along which the sailors and officers moved became stairs in residential buildings, the metal frames went to the construction of greenhouses, in some places the roofs were covered with metal. At the entrance to the village of Dubki, there is a brick house with portholes installed instead of windows on the gates of the barn and in the toilet. According to the local headman Viktor Larionov, who lives in it, he did not remove the windows from the Aurora himself, but simply took them from a neighbor who worked at a fishing state farm.

He just had them lying around in the garden, and I adapted them for business, ”says Viktor Ilyich. - From the inside, the toilet resembles a latrine on a famous cruiser.

Towing the cruiser "Aurora" during the passage through the Trinity Bridge.

The modern cruiser is only a replica, since during the last reconstruction in 1984, more than 50% of the hull and superstructures were replaced. Of the most noticeable differences from the original is the use of welds on the new body instead of rivet technology.

The Andreevsky flag was again raised on the ship in 1992, the cruiser is listed as part of the Russian Navy, until recently officers and sailors served on the ship (even if they are ten times less than they once were). Of course, the Aurora itself will no longer be able to move away from the place of eternal parking, but all auxiliary mechanisms and life support systems are maintained by the cruiser's team in working order. In working well-groomed condition and ship guns.

Today, the main occupation of the cruiser "Aurora", whose age has already exceeded one hundred years, is to serve as a museum. And this museum is very visited - there are up to half a million guests a year on board the ship. And honestly, this museum is worth a visit - and not only for those who are nostalgic for the irretrievably bygone times.

It's great that Aurora has survived to this day. All over the world, such monument ships can be counted on one hand: Victoria and Cutty Sark in England, Queen Mary in the USA, Mikasa in Japan. It remains only to wish the veteran good health for the next hundred years; after all, a blank shot in October 1917 is just one of many pages in the long biography of the glorious cruiser. And from it, as from a song, you can’t throw out the words ...

Recall, "Aurora" lost the status of the ship number 1 of the Russian Navy on December 1, 2010. The ship became a branch Central Museum Navy. On August 1, the Aurora was finally transferred to the jurisdiction of the Central Naval Museum. military unit, who served on the ship, was dismissed. The crew of the cruiser "Aurora" was reorganized into a staff of three military personnel and 28 people civilian personnel; the status of the ship remained the same. On June 27, 2012, the deputies of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly adopted an appeal to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces with a request to return the status of ship No. 1 in the Russian Navy to the cruiser, while retaining the military crew on the ship. Let's see how this whole story ends...

Vladimir Kontrovsky

May 24, 1900 in the New Admiralty of St. Petersburg, with the personal participation of Tsar Nicholas II, the legendary cruiser Aurora was launched, which during the October Revolution became one of the destroyers of the Russian Empire.

This cruiser of the 1st rank of the Baltic Fleet was laid down in 1897 in St. Petersburg at the New Admiralty shipyard. "Aurora" was launched on the personal instructions of Emperor Nicholas II, in the presence of two empresses (the dowager and the wife of the king) and numerous members of the Imperial family. In July 1903, the Aurora entered service. In September 1903, the Aurora, as part of a detachment of cruisers under Rear Admiral A. A. Virenius, was sent to the Far East.

On May 27 and 28, 1905, the cruiser took part in the Battle of Tsushima, in this battle the crew lost 15 people killed and more than 80 wounded. The captain of the ship E.R. Egoriev died - he was killed by a fragment of a projectile that fell into the conning tower. Unlike most other ships, the Aurora escaped destruction, together with two other cruisers managed to break through to a neutral port (Manila), where he was interned on May 25 (June 7), 1905.

In 1906, the Aurora returned to the Baltic, where it became a training ship for the naval corps.

From the autumn of 1911 to the summer of 1912, the Aurora went on the third long-distance training voyage to participate in the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of the King of Thailand, and also visited the ports of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

"Aurora" took part in the First World War. At the end of 1916, the ship was sent for serious repairs to Petrograd, to the Franco-Russian factory.

The cruiser was one of the first to join February Revolution and raised the red flag. Most of the crew in 1917 joined the Bolsheviks. On the night of October 25, 1917, on the orders of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Aurora team captured and brought down the Nikolaevsky Bridge in Petrograd, which connected Vasilyevsky Island with the city center.

On October 25 at 21:45, a blank shot from the Aurora bow gun, fired on the orders of Commissar Belyshev, gave the signal to storm Winter Palace. On November 28 (December 11), 1917, the Aurora, after repairs, returned to the 2nd cruiser brigade in Sveaborg. After the decree on the dissolution of the old fleet and the organization of the new RKKF on a voluntary basis, most of the team was demobilized. In 1918, the cruiser was transferred to Kronstadt and mothballed.

Since 1922, "Aurora" again becomes a training ship, but during the Great Patriotic War, the turret guns were dismantled from the cruiser and used to protect Leningrad from the Nazis. The cruiser itself was fired on September 30, 1941 and sank in the port of Oranienbaum. After the war, the Aurora was raised, restored and placed in eternal parking. In 1984, the cruiser was again sent for a major restoration, which lasted until 1987. During the restoration, a part of the ship below the waterline, due to the impossibility of restoration, was replaced with a new welded one. Now

Cruiser Aurora". The number one ship of the Russian Navy. A symbol ship, a legend ship, a myth ship and... a curse ship. Protected by the one in whose honor she was named, the Aurora outlived her "sisters" by almost a century and, by a whim of fate, seems to be doomed to immortality.

Aurora Guardian Angel

Is in the Russian fleet good tradition- give new ships the names of their glorious predecessors who have served their time. So the armored cruiser of the 1st rank, laid down in 1897 at the New Admiralty shipyard in St. Petersburg, was named after the Aurora sailing frigate, which heroically fought against the superior forces of the English squadron during the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1854.

In turn, the name of the frigate was given by Nicholas I in honor of one of the most beautiful women in St. Petersburg - the maid of honor of the Empress Aurora Demidova-Karamzina, with whom the emperor was probably secretly in love. But over this lady, a family curse, a kind of "crown of celibacy" weighed heavily.

All the men who decided to connect their fate with her left prematurely for another world. No wonder this fatal woman was called in secular salons "Dawn, betrothed to death." But she herself lived a long life and did not consider herself unhappy, pursued by evil fate, because she loved and was loved.

Upon learning that the new cruiser would bear her name, Aurora Karlovna exclaimed:

Oh, if only this would not have a tragic effect on his fate!

But the fears of the woman, who apparently became the guardian angel of the Aurora, were in vain. This generally ordinary cruiser, which did not show itself in anything special, ironically ascended to the very pinnacle of glory, lived an incredibly long life for a warship, and its journey is not over yet.

miraculous rescues

"Aurora" was the "younger sister" of the same type of armored cruisers "Diana" and "Pallada". The attitude of sailors to these three "goddesses of domestic production" was very skeptical. These ships had a lot of design flaws, their mechanisms often failed. They did not differ either in speed or in the power of weapons.

But the angel kept the Aurora. For the first time, he saved her from certain death in the Battle of Tsushima. The cruiser detachment of Rear Admiral Enquist carried out the task of covering the transports. But it turned out to be beyond the power of four cruisers, which were hit by heavy fire from 16 Japanese ships. During the battle, the Aurora received 18 hits from medium and small caliber shells, which caused quite serious damage to the cruiser.

Cruiser "Aurora" (1916)

Naval artillery suffered especially significant damage. The crew lost 15 men killed and 82 wounded. The commander of the cruiser, Captain 1st Rank Evgeny Yegoriev, was killed, mortally wounded in the head by a fragment of an enemy shell at a combat post, in the wheelhouse. The Aurora itself, having fired almost two thousand shells, did not cause serious damage to the enemy.

From a heroic death, the Russian cruisers were saved by a column of battleships that accidentally approached, who drove the enemy away. Nevertheless, the pretty battered ships could not break through to Vladivostok and went south, to the Philippine port of Manila, where they were interned until the end of the war by the US authorities, under whose protectorate the Philippines was at that time.

Kept the fate of the "Aurora" and in the First world war. On October 11, 1914, at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, the German submarine U-26 discovered two Russian cruisers: Aurora and Pallada (not the “big sister” who died in Port Arthur, but a new cruiser built after the Russo-Japanese War ).

The commander of the submarine, Captain-Lieutenant von Berkheim, correctly assessed the situation and chose to launch a torpedo at a more tasty target - the Pallada. The new cruiser sank along with the entire crew, and the veteran managed to hide in skerries. So the Aurora escaped death for the second time.

In general, this “ordinary goddess” has not done anything heroic in the entire history of its existence.

The shot that wasn't there

“But what about the legendary shot that served as a signal for the storming of the Winter Palace and marked the beginning of a new era in the history of mankind?!” - you ask. There was no such shot. In October 1917, the Aurora continued to be overhauled, and all ammunition was removed from it. By chance, one blank charge was on board, and they fired it, thereby calling on the ships on the Neva "to be vigilant and ready." But it happened in the afternoon, long before the assault.

On October 24, the military revolutionary committee set the Aurora the task of restoring traffic along the Nikolaevsky bridge, which had been opened the day before by the junkers. Seeing the cruiser approaching the bridge, the junkers fled, and the ship's electricians managed to lower the spans. The ship itself ended up behind a bridge that cut it off from the Petropavlovka and the Winter Palace.

So he could not inflict damage on the defenders of the Provisional Government, even if he had ammunition. And the signal to storm the Winter Palace was given from the Peter and Paul Fortress. About 30 cannon salvos were fired from its bastions, but only two shells hit the palace - the artillerymen did not want to kill their compatriots.

There is no documentary evidence of the Aurora shot. The logbooks of 1917, in which all the actions of the ship's crew were scrupulously recorded, disappeared without a trace. And it can be said with full confidence that the heroic cruiser of the revolution is just one of the propaganda symbols and great myths of revolutionary power.

Mystical soul of the ship

Invisible mystical power and in the future repeatedly saved the "Aurora" from death. And every time they tried to destroy it, it turned into a disaster for the country. So, when in 1917 the command of the Baltic Fleet prepared an order to sink the cruiser in the fairway of the Gulf of Finland, on the outskirts of Kronstadt, in order to prevent German squadrons from reaching Petrograd, this was prevented by the revolutionary-minded crew of the ship - and a few months later the October Revolution took place.

In 1941, it was planned to withdraw the Aurora from the Navy and "put it on pins and needles" - and the Great Patriotic War began.

And in 1984, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to overhaul the legendary cruiser for the 70th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. By that time, the underwater part of the ship simply rotted, it was a continuous sieve. Water was pumped out of the holds day and night, even filling the bottom with a layer of concrete did not save.

A major reconstruction of the lower part of the hull was required. But the shipbuilders of the Zhdanovsky plant were given too little time for this business. And then the Deputy Minister of the shipbuilding industry, Igor Belousov, came up with a saving idea - to cut off the old underwater part, make the same new one and put the old surface part on top, and they did. And no one would have known about what happened, but the shipbuilders could not or did not dare to hand over the old hull for scrap.

They decided to hide the cut off part in the Luga Bay, near the village of Ruchi, where back in the 1930s, Luzhlag convicts were building “0obekt-200” - Komsomolsk-on-Baltic, the base of the Baltic Navy. This most modern city for those times was never inhabited: it was blown up at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War so as not to surrender to the enemy, and they did not begin to restore it. The remains of the pre-war concrete pier have been preserved. Not far from it, they decided to flood the Aurora hull, for which they dug a kind of trench at the bottom.

By that time, local residents had thoroughly ruined the legendary remains, removing everything they could: from bronze valves, steel ladders and portholes to copper sheathing sheets. And when they began to lower a 120-meter colossus into the trench, they missed, the hull did not lie down as it was intended, and part of it remained sticking out above the water.

On the day of the 70th anniversary of October, the updated Aurora was received by Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev himself. With reverence, he examined the famous six-inch gun that banged along Zimny, not suspecting that this was also a substitution: a real tank gun died in battles on the Dudergof heights as part of battery "A" along with other guns taken from the Aurora to protect Leningrad from fascist invaders .

And even more so, he could not see the underwater part of the cruiser, where the steel sheets were connected not with rivets, as before, but with welds. Then Gorbachev, having learned how he was cheated, tore and threw, but the deed is done, nothing can be corrected. "Aurora" again avenged the desecration of her - the collapse of the Soviet Union.

And yet, because of what all the fuss? Some experts argue that the current Aurora is not real, but just a replica of the legendary cruiser. But after all, only the lower part has been replaced, while the upper part has been preserved, including the interior of the premises. We will not deny the right to the title of a person to a disabled person who has lost his legs, which are replaced by prostheses?! "Aurora" retained the main thing - its name, mystical soul, guardian angel.

This summer, the cruiser will return from another major overhaul and will return to its usual place next to the quay wall. And it will no longer be a symbol of the revolution, but a monument to domestic shipbuilding. I would like to believe that there will be no more attempts to hand it over for scrap. It's dangerous, you know!

Mikhail YURIEV

"Aurora" - a cruiser of the 1st rank of the Baltic Fleet, known for its role in the Great October Socialist Revolution, was built according to the shipbuilding program of 1895.
The cruiser Aurora was laid down on May 23, 1897 in St. Petersburg at the Novoye Admiralty shipyard. Almost simultaneously, three brand new cruisers were launched, built under the guidance of engineer Konstantin Tokarevsky: Diana, Pallada and Aurora.
The cruiser got its name in honor of the sailing frigate Aurora, which became famous during the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The irony of history - the cruiser that heralded the revolution was solemnly launched on May 11 (24), 1900 on the personal command of the Emperor of All Russia Nicholas II, in the presence of two empresses and numerous members of the Imperial family.
Another irony of history - the cruiser-symbol of the revolution, as a project, constructively, was, to put it mildly, not the most successful - the vehicles turned out to be underpowered, the armor was thin, and the artillery was weaker than that of foreign counterparts. At that time, one could hear such a joke in the Navy: "Low speed and few guns - that's what distinguishes the Aurora from an ordinary steamer."

Type and functional purpose of the cruiser "Aurora"

Functionally, this type of cruiser was intended to act as a reconnaissance and combat enemy merchant shipping at a short distance from bases, as well as to support battleships in squadron combat. However, due to insufficient cruising range for a cruiser, low speed, relatively weak armament and armor, since 1908 it was called upon to perform the functions of a training cruiser.
Structurally, it belonged to the type of armored cruisers, tactically - to trade fighter cruisers. Her crew consisted of almost six hundred people. The hull was sheathed with copper - against fouling with shells.

The history of the cruiser "Aurora"

On September 18, 1903, the Aurora entered service.
On September 25 (November 8), 1903, the Aurora left Kronstadt for the Far East, after calling at Portland in early October, arrived in the Mediterranean Sea and on October 25 arrived at the port of La Spezia (Italy), where she joined the Rear Admiral's detachment at sea A. A. Virenius, following to the Far East to reinforce the Port Arthur squadron. During a stay in Djibouti (French Somalia) in connection with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the entire detachment was recalled to the Baltic on February 2, 1904.
In preparation for a new campaign, the cruiser received three machine guns of the Maxim system, 25-mm armored shields for the main caliber guns and a new Telefunken radio station with a communication range of up to 100 miles.

Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905

On April 17, 1904, the ship was transferred to the 2nd Squadron of the Pacific Fleet. On August 29, as part of this squadron under the command of Vice-Admiral Z. P. Rozhestvensky, he left Kronstadt for the Pacific Ocean to the theater of operations of the Russo-Japanese War.
The Aurora was among those ships that took part in the Battle of Tsushima, which took place on May 14–15 (27–28), 1905, as part of the 2nd squadron of the Pacific Fleet of Vice Admiral Z. P. Rozhdestvensky with the Japanese fleet of Admiral H. Togo.

Participation of the cruiser "Aurora" in the Battle of Tsushima

At the beginning of the daytime battle on May 14, the cruiser was second behind the flagship cruiser of the Oleg detachment, covering the convoy of transports from the east. As part of his detachment, together with the reconnaissance detachment, he entered into battle with the 3rd and 4th Japanese combat detachments, as well as with the 6th Japanese combat detachment. Around 16:00 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. At about 16:30, together with the detachment, he went under the protection of the non-shooting 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 8 to 3-inch caliber shells, the crew lost 15 people killed and 83 wounded. The commander of the ship, Captain 1st Rank E. R. Yegoriev, died - he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment that fell into the conning tower. Command of the Aurora was taken by a senior officer, Captain 2nd Rank A. K. Nebolsin, himself wounded. The cruiser received 37 holes (of which 13 were small near the waterline), but did not put her out of action. The chimneys were seriously damaged, the compartment of the forward mine apparatus and several coal pits of the front stoker were flooded. Several fires were extinguished on the cruiser. All range measuring stations, four 75-mm and one 6-dm guns were out of order.

On the night of May 14/15, following the flagship of the detachment, forced the course to 18 knots, broke away from enemy pursuit in the dark and turned to the south. After several attempts to turn north, repelling torpedo attacks by Japanese destroyers, two ships of the detachment of O. A. Enkvist - "Oleg" and "Aurora" - with the cruiser Zhemchug that joined them, on May 21 came to the neutral port of Manila (Philippines, US protectorate ), where they were interned on May 27, 1905 by the American authorities until the end of the war. A subscription was taken from the team about non-participation in further hostilities. For the treatment of the sick and wounded, both on 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.

Cruiser "Aurora" and the revolution of 1917

The cruiser standing in Petrograd was at the center of the events of two revolutions in 1917. Being in close contact with the workers of the plant, the sailors of the cruiser "Aurora" were involved in revolutionary agitation. This was facilitated general environment in Russia, which the war brought to the brink of disaster. On February 27 (March 12), the crew demanded that the commander release three imprisoned agitators from custody. During the dispersal of the rally that followed, the commander of the cruiser Captain 1st Rank M. I. Nikolsky and senior officer P. P. Ogranovich opened fire on the team with pistols; were injured. When on February 28 (March 13), 1917, it became known on the cruiser that the February bourgeois-democratic revolution had taken place, the sailors, together with the workers, raised a red flag on the ship. The ship's commander was killed, the senior officer was wounded, most of the crew went ashore and joined the uprising.

"Aurora" was the largest ship capable of passing the Neva fairway. The revolutionary leaders set the crew the task of keeping the Nikolaevsky Bridge from possible capture by the Provisional Government detachments.

By decision of the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet, the almost repaired Aurora was left in Petrograd and subordinated to the Petrograd Council. The sailors of the cruiser took part in the October armed uprising in Petrograd on October 25 (November 7), 1917: on the night of October 25, 1917, by order of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, the Aurora team captured and brought down the Nikolaev bridge in Petrograd, which connected Vasilyevsky Island with the center cities. On October 25, at 21:45, a blank shot from the Aurora's bow gun, fired on the orders of Commissar Belyshev, gave the signal to storm the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was located.

However, there is evidence that the shot of the Aurora sounded long before the storming of the Winter Palace. On the eve of the uprising, Antonov-Ovseenko, secretary of the military revolutionary committee, visited the cruiser. According to the instructions, before the assault on the Winter Palace, a signal was to be given from the Peter and Paul Fortress. At the Aurora, they got tired of waiting for the signal and decided to draw attention, - they say, well, when already? - so they fired a blank shot.

After the October Revolution, the Aurora became the only ship of the tsarist fleet, which was left with its native name. In the twenty-third year, the cruiser again became a training one.
After the decree on the dissolution of the old fleet and the organization of the new RKKF on a voluntary basis, most of the team was demobilized. Only 40 people remained on the ship, necessary for ongoing work and protection. In 1918, a civil war broke out in Russia. In the summer of 1918, the cruiser, which could no longer be maintained in a state of combat readiness, was transferred to Kronstadt and put into reserve, like most of the large ships of the fleet. The 152-mm guns of the Aurora were removed and sent to Astrakhan to arm the floating batteries. Most of the sailors of the cruiser went to the fronts civil war, partly just at home. In 1922, the ship was transferred to the Kronstadt port for long-term storage (mothballed).

Cruiser "Aurora" during the Great Patriotic War

During the Great Patriotic War, the personnel and guns of the Aurora took part in the heroic defense of Leningrad. The cruiser spent the entire war in Oranienbaum near Leningrad. The ship was included in the system air defense Kronstadt. From the very first days of the blockade of the city, he repelled the attacks of German aircraft with the fire of his anti-aircraft artillery. In winter, Aurora continued to serve as a floating base for submarine formations. After he received damage on September 30, 1941 from artillery shells, he was planted on the ground on an even keel in the Oranienbaum harbor. The remaining guns were unloaded from it, but until the very end of the war, the Aurora did not lower the Naval flag of the USSR.

Cruiser "Aurora" after the Great Patriotic War

Even before the end of the war in 1944, it was decided to restore the cruiser as a monument active participation sailors in the Revolution of 1917. The Aurora was raised in 1944 and underwent a major overhaul in 1945-1947, during which the appearance of the ship was brought closer to its appearance in 1917. 152-mm Kane guns were installed, the same type as those that were in 1917 on the ship, but, unfortunately, guns were found in the arsenals only on land machines. Ship shields for them were made according to the drawings of veteran Aurors. The underwater part of the hull was made waterproof using a concrete "shirt" worn on the inner surface of the ship's skin. The power plant was removed, with the exception of two boilers for heating and a medium steam engine left as study guide. The superstructures were restored, including the complete replacement of the chimneys, badly damaged during the war.

As a result, the ship became a full-fledged training base for the students of the Nakhimov School, against the building of which on the Bolshaya Nevka River in Leningrad, the ship solemnly took its place on November 17, 1947. Future officers of the Navy received primary naval skills on the Aurora: they participated in ship work, served as ship outfits.

Memorial ship cruiser "Aurora"

Under Soviet rule, the Aurora cruiser became a training cruiser and was revered as one of the symbols of the revolution. During repairs, in 1945–46. the cruiser participated in the filming of the movie "Cruiser Varyag", playing the role of "Varangian".
The museum on the ship began to be created in 1950 by personnel, Aurora veterans, and enthusiasts. In 1956, it was decided to give the ship museum the status of a branch of the Central Naval Museum. Since 1961, Aurora has ceased to be an educational base, and the former cockpits of the students of the school were transferred to the museum, the staff of which was increased to 5 people.

Museum on the cruiser "Aurora"

For ordinary visitors, the upper deck and forecastle with a 152-mm gun, as well as the premises of the ship's museum, were open. The rest of the ship's quarters were inaccessible. Simultaneously with the museum, a team of 50 sailors and officers was left on the ship (and remains to this day) to guard the ship and maintain the mechanisms, so the cruiser itself and the museum on the cruiser are different, albeit friendly, organizations. Current repairs of the ship were carried out in 1957-1958 and 1966-1968. In 1968, the Aurora cruiser was awarded the order October revolution.

Repair and restoration of the cruiser "Aurora"

In the late 1980s The ship's hull was in dire need of a major overhaul. In 1984-1987, the cruiser underwent repair and restoration work and re-equipment. As a result of the repair of the cruiser:
The underwater part of the ship's hull (1.2 m above the waterline) was considered unrepairable; it was cut off and handed over to the butcher. The cut off lower part was towed into the Gulf of Finland to the unfinished Ruchi naval base and scuttled near the coast. Instead, a new welded underwater part (dummy) was made. The wooden and copper cladding was not recreated. Screws are missing.

The surface part was divided into four sections, which were installed on the new underwater part. In the engine room of the right and left machines, a boiler room was made and mock-ups of two boilers of the Belleville-Dolgolenko system were placed there. The aft main machine was put in order and installed in its place. The carapace deck was made anew. Most of the old armor plates were returned to it (except for the lower belt).
The superstructures were installed in their places and mostly externally decorated to look like a ship as it was in 1917. The pipes and masts were made from scratch, since the old ones were also "remake". It was decided to leave the guns on coastal mounts.

Almost all of the interior of the ship has been redesigned. On the battery deck there is a museum, a compartment for museum 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 crew's new living quarters. All accommodation units are equipped according to the habitability requirements of the modern Navy. In two aft engine rooms, an engine and boiler room was organized with auxiliary mechanisms and additionally placed combat steam dynamos. The premises of the boiler rooms are occupied by modern PES (energy and survivability post), a power plant, air conditioners, hot water boilers for domestic needs, diesel generators, a drainage station, a fire extinguishing system and other equipment. The tiller compartment, the compartment of the refrigerator car and the central post remained unredesigned.

Cruiser Aurora today

After repair and restoration work, on August 16, 1987, the Aurora was returned to its place of parking - at the Nakhimov VMU. At present, in addition to scientific staff, a team of 6 officers, 12 midshipmen and 42 sailors serves on the ship.

Address and opening hours of the museum cruiser "Aurora". Excursions on the cruiser "Aurora"

Address: 197046, St. Petersburg, Petrovskaya emb., cruiser "Aurora"; tel. 230–8440
Directions: St. m. "Gorkovskaya", tram. 2, 6, 30, 63
Opening hours: Daily from 10.30 to 16.00, except Monday and Friday
Excursions: admission to the cruiser is free; thematic excursions to the underwater part of the hull and the engine and boiler room are paid separately.