If there had been no revolution. History of "Aurora"

The cruiser "Aurora" is rightfully called the number one ship of the Russian Navy. The cruiser took part in the Battle of Tsushima, the 1917 Revolution and the Great Patriotic War - the most important events in the history of the country in the 20th century.
This coming Sunday, the museum ship will leave the pier at the Nakhimov School in St. Petersburg. It is awaiting renovation, which will last until 2016. ITAR-TASS has selected the most interesting facts from the rich history of the ship. In preparation, materials were used from the book of the sailor, historian of the Russian fleet, Lev Polenov, “One Hundred Years in the Fleet Lists” (Ostrov Publishing House, St. Petersburg, 2003).

The hull of the cruiser "Aurora" after launching, 1900 wikimedia.org/Reproduction of the book "Goddesses of the Russian Navy. "Aurora", "Diana", "Pallada"/ Author of the reproduction Midshipman

The armored cruiser of the 1st rank "Aurora" is the last in a series of three ships with a displacement of 6.6 thousand tons, built at the end of the 19th century at the St. Petersburg shipyard "New Admiralty" (now "Admiralty Shipyards").

The length of the ship is 123.5 meters, the greatest length is 16.8 meters, the displacement is 6.7 thousand tons, the speed is 20 knots. Armament: eight 6-inch long-range guns, 24 75-mm rapid-fire guns, 8 37-mm Hotchkiss guns, three mine vehicles.

The first two ships of the project, the development of which began in the spring of 1895, were named "Pallada" and "Diana", the third was unnamed for almost a year and was simply called "cruiser with a displacement of 6630 tons of the "Diana" type" (in the Russian fleet the name of the type of ships was not given by name the lead ship, but by the shortest and most sonorous name of one of the ships of the same type).

It was only in 1897 that he received a name. According to the tradition that has existed since the time of Peter I, the right to name large ships belonged to the tsar, so Nicholas II was offered a list of possible names for the cruiser under construction. The options were: “Aurora”, “Naiad”, “Heliona”, “Juno”, “Psyche”, “Askold”, “Varyag”, “Bogatyr”, “Boyarin”, “Polkan”, “Neptune”. The Emperor underlined the name in the list and wrote in pencil in the margin: “Aurora.”
In the order of the Naval Department dated April 6, 1897, No. 64, it was announced: “The Sovereign Emperor on March 31 of this year deigned to command: the cruiser of 6630 tons of displacement being built in St. Petersburg, in the New Admiralty, be named “Aurora” and be included in the lists ".

"Aurora" during sea trials, 1903 wikimedia.org/Reproduction of the book "Goddesses of the Russian Fleet. "Aurora", "Diana", "Pallada"/Author of the reproduction Midshipman

In 1904, the cruiser Aurora became part of the 2nd Pacific Squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Zinovy ​​Rozhdestvensky. A squadron of 28 ships in the fall of 1904 left Libau (now Liepaja, Latvia) and headed to the Far East in order to unite with the 1st Pacific Squadron locked in Port Arthur and attack the ships of the Japanese fleet. On the night of October 9, when the squadron was in the North Sea, an incident occurred, which in Russia is called the Gullian incident, and in Europe - “The Russian Outrage”. The squadron commander, Rozhdestvensky, received information about the presence of unknown destroyers on the path of the Russian ships.

In the area of ​​Dogger Banks, as the squadron was moving, a silhouette of a ship was discovered, which was moving without distinctive lights and was on a course that crossed the course of the Russian flotilla, which was a gross violation of international rules for the navigation of ships at sea. The squadron decided that it was in danger of being attacked by destroyers, and the battleships leading ahead opened fire on the unknown ship. It later turned out that Russian ships fired on small British fishing vessels, one of which was sunk, five more were damaged, and two people were killed. The fire was stopped. At the same time, silhouettes of two more ships appeared abeam the forward detachment, on which fire was also opened.

The ships that were fired on were the Aurora and the cruiser Dmitry Donskoy, which were located at a distance from the main strike group of the squadron. Two people were injured as a result of the shelling on the Aurora.
The team was ordered to lie down, and from the conning tower they signaled with all the signal means at their disposal, lit the so-called “Christmas tree”, flares, and sent searchlight beams upward. "Alexander III" at that time had just leveled the muzzles of its huge 12-inch monsters and was preparing to fire at the "Aurora" with a salvo that would have killed her. The shooting stopped. There were only five hits, and two of them were in the ship's priest's cabin.
There were two victims. The priest's shoulder was crushed and he died of gangrene in Tangier. The sailor, wounded in the leg, recovered, but could not continue his service and was sent home.

The next day there was a flurry of indignation in European newspapers. The British fleet rushed after Rozhdestvensky's squadron and blocked it off the coast of Spain. The incident led to a serious diplomatic conflict, which was resolved only after Russia agreed to compensate the fishermen for all losses and provide pensions to the relatives of the dead and wounded. Meanwhile, the squadron continued on its way.

Sailors of the Aurora during a break in coal loading vk.com/cruiser_aurora/Reproduction of the book “One Hundred Years in the Fleet Lists. Cruiser Aurora” by L.L. Polenov

The sailors on the Aurora, like on many other ships, had their own pets and favorites. For some time, two crocodiles lived on the cruiser Aurora. They were taken on board in one of the African ports along the cruiser's route to the shores of Japan. The crocodiles were given nicknames: one - Sam, the other - Togo, after the Japanese admiral Heihachiro Togo, who later led the defeat of the 2nd Pacific Squadron.

One day, when the sailors decided that the taming had been successful, the crocodiles were released onto the poop. They were basking in the sun. Having lulled people's vigilance, He himself suddenly rushed to the side and jumped into the ocean.
In the diary of the commander of the Aurora, the following entry was made regarding this event on March 5, 1905: “One of the young crocodiles, whom the officers released today on the poop for fun, did not want to go to war; he chose to jump overboard and die.”
The death of the crocodile made a depressing impression on the sailors. They also attached importance to the fact that Sam jumped overboard, and the crocodile, who bore the name of the Japanese admiral Togo, remained and lived as if nothing had happened.

The crew of the Aurora, according to the recollections of contemporaries, was very friendly. The ship's commander, captain 1st rank Evgeny Egoriev, did not allow assault. A competent and experienced officer, he was loved by both the crew and the officers.
According to the practice adopted by the commander, the entire crew worked during bunkering - not a single person was left on the sidelines. Thanks to this, it was possible to load coal in the shortest possible time. Even Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky, known for his rudeness, ordered officers from other ships to familiarize themselves with the experience of the Aurora crew.
The commander of the 2nd squadron of the Pacific Fleet did not escape the attention of how at the end of March 1905 the officers organized Maslenitsa festivities on board the Aurora. At the same time, a circular was issued in which the squadron command recommended that ship commanders take into account the experience of the Aurors.

Damage to the bow of the "Aurora" after the Battle of Tsushima, 1905 wikimedia.org/Reproduction of the book "Goddesses of the Russian Fleet. "Aurora", "Diana", "Pallada"/Author of the reproduction Midshipman

Tsushima lucky guy
The 2nd squadron of the Pacific Fleet, numbering 38 warships and auxiliary vessels, having crossed three oceans, reached the shores of Japan, but was unable to pass the narrow Korean Strait. There, Rozhestvensky's squadron was awaited by superior forces of the Japanese fleet (89 ships) under the flag of Admiral Heihachiro Togo. During the day, the Japanese brought down powerful artillery fire on the ships of the Russian squadron, primarily trying to disable the battleships.

"Aurora" withstood the battle at Tsushima with honor, fulfilling the command's orders to protect ships and transports. The Aurora's gunners fired accurately at the enemy ships, and the ship more than once covered the wounded Russian battleships with its body.
But the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion - most of the Russian ships were sunk by the Japanese or surrendered. The rest were either sunk by the crews or died later during pursuit by the enemy. Three lucky ones from the detachment of cruisers survived - "Oleg", "Zhemchug" and "Aurora", as well as one destroyer and two auxiliary vessels.
A detachment of cruisers under the command of Oskar Enquist did not break through to Vladivostok, but went to the Philippine port of Manila, where the ships were disarmed by the Americans and were able to leave the foreign harbor only at the end of 1905 after the signing of a peace treaty with Japan. On February 19, 1906, the ship returned to Libau.

The crew's rest in hanging bunks on the waist of the cruiser "Aurora" vk.com/cruiser_aurora/Reproduction of the CVMM

The first x-ray after the naval battle
On the Aurora, for the first time, an X-ray machine was installed on a warship at the insistence of the ship's doctor Vladimir Kravchenko. The doctor himself, in his book “Across Three Oceans. A Doctor’s Memoirs of a Sea Voyage,” wrote that skeptics stated that the use of X-ray equipment on ships was impossible. “Installing the device at the dressing station was not at all an easy task...” Kravchenko wrote in his book. “The results exceeded all our expectations. There were fragments and fractures discovered (during the examination. - ITAR-TASS) where they were not expected . This made our work much easier, and saved the wounded from unnecessary suffering...” In the practice of providing out-of-hospital care that existed at that time, even on land, and not in the navy, fragments were looked for in wounds using probes, often without anesthesia.

“By the way, this experience of the widespread use of the X-ray apparatus on a warship after the battle was the first. More than 40 wounded were examined. During all the time, I observed only one case of fainting, and this was during the X-ray study. Rangefinder Mikhailov, the most cheerful patient, was seriously the wounded man, who had ten wounds, an open splintered fracture of the bones of his left forearm, who, during the most painful dressings, always joked about himself and made others laugh until they fell, suddenly could not stand it... His steel nerves finally trembled under the influence of this darkness, mystery, strange flickering green light and view bones of his own skeleton on the screen. I certainly didn’t expect this from Mikhailov. Where is he now? Is he still joking and joking around, or is the poor cripple no longer in the mood for jokes?" - the doctor wrote in his book.

Salvo of the cruiser "Aurora", 1917 TASS photo chronicle

Single with refutation
"Aurora" is called a symbol of the October Revolution. Meanwhile, it can be considered as such only with a stretch. From the memoirs of the Bolshevik sailor, member of the Tsentrobalt (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet, the highest body of the sailor revolutionary masses of the Baltic Fleet) Nikolai Khovrin: “Approximately from the thirties, thanks to artists, poets, journalists, directors and some writers, the praise of the cruiser “Aurora” began. The glory of this cruiser is especially blossomed during the cult of personality. The sailor, hung with machine-gun belts, and the cruiser "Aurora" become emblems of the Great October Revolution, and everything else seemed to not exist."

Khovrin describes Aurora's participation in the events on the night of October 26, 1917 as follows. “One of the orders of the Military Revolutionary Committee was to order the cruiser Aurora to anchor at the Nikolaevsky Bridge in case of shelling of the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was located. Not knowing how the military units located would behave, this measure was necessary, especially since The Aurora had large-caliber guns.

However, the command of the cruiser refused to carry out orders, citing the shallow fairway on the Neva. In addition, the Aurora vehicles were not assembled at that time. Nevertheless, the tug brought the cruiser to the bridge, where it anchored. When they began to prepare the guns, it turned out that there were no sights for them. Someone locked the scopes in the cabin. So, in search of both, we lasted until the evening. In a word, everything was done to ensure that the order of the Military Revolutionary Committee was not carried out. But still, at the most decisive moment, the Aurora fired one blank shot, and with that the role of the cruiser was exhausted."

Sailors' protest
After the shot, which was later called historical, rumors spread throughout Petrograd that shots at Rastrelli’s creation were fired with live shells. To refute them, the following note was published in the Pravda newspaper on November 9 (October 27), 1917:

Letter to the editor.
The crew of the cruiser "Aurora" protests about the accusations thrown, especially the accusations that have not been verified, but cast a stain of shame on the cruiser's crew. We declare that we did not come to destroy the Winter Palace, not to kill civilians, but to defend and, if necessary, die for freedom and revolution from counter-revolutionaries.
The press writes that the Aurora opened fire on the Winter Palace, but do gentlemen reporters know that the cannon fire we opened would have left no stone unturned not only from the Winter Palace, but also from the streets adjacent to it?
We address you, workers and soldiers of Petrograd! Don't believe provocative rumors. ...As for the shots from the cruiser, only one blank shot was fired from a 6-inch gun, indicating a signal for all ships standing on the Neva, and calling them to be vigilant and ready.
Chairman of the Sudcom A. Belyshev
Secretary S. Zakharov

"Aurora" on the Neva, 1918 Reproduction of TASS Photo Chronicle/P. Luknitsky

Attempts on the Aurora
It is possible that the Aurora was considered revolutionary because the crew of the cruiser really supported the Bolsheviks. In 1917-1918, as the former commander of the ship Lev Polenov states in his book “One Hundred Years on the Fleet’s List,” several attempts were made to destroy the revolutionary cruiser or its crew. The first attempt was made on the eve of 1918, when a batch of hams was sent to the ship for the New Year's table, which, as it turned out, were poisoned. About 200 people were hospitalized in serious condition.

In January, the crew of the cruiser was warned about the intention of the enemies of the revolution to destroy the ship. To protect the Aurora, the Baltics installed a wire fence on the ice of the Bolshaya Neva and strengthened the security of the ship.
In the second half of March, the ship's committee received information about the anarchists' intention to blow up the Aurora.
On March 30, an attempted terrorist attack was foiled. On the ice near the bow of the cruiser, in the area of ​​the ammunition magazines, the sailors found a suspicious package and brought it to the ship's committee. The officer acting as senior artilleryman disarmed the "infernal machine" and unloaded it, removing the time fuse and 3.6 kg of tola. However, the events did not end there: the officer went to his cabin to study the fuse and the design of the mine, and then, while reporting to the commander, the fuse accidentally detonated in his hands. The artillery officer's hands were mutilated and he had a wound in his side.

Anti-aircraft gunners on duty at the cruiser "Aurora" in besieged Leningrad, 1942 TASS photo chronicle

Aurora guns defended Leningrad
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War found the Aurora in the port of Oranienbaum. The ship's artillery was in service, it was included in the air defense system of the approaches to Kronstadt and Leningrad.

Since July 1941, 130-mm Aurora guns operated as part of Battery A, named after the cruiser and which included sailors from the Aurora in its crews. In September 1941, this battery fought for a week in the Duderhof area on Voronya Gora (the highest point of Leningrad) against German tanks, being completely surrounded. The battle continued until the last shell, and out of 165 personnel, only 26 made it out of the encirclement. The sailors of one of the gun crews preferred death to surrender, blowing themselves up along with the guns.

In September 1941, after shelling, the cruiser itself tilted to starboard, and in order to right it, the team had to partially flood the ship by opening the kingstons on the opposite side.
Due to the lack of heat and electricity, the personnel moved to the shore with the onset of frost, where they subsequently unloaded the remaining weapons in the winter. One of the guns, transported by "live steam" across the ice to the workshops, was subsequently installed on the Baltiets armored train. This armored train crushed the enemy on the outskirts of Leningrad until 1944.

The cruiser "Varyag" in Kronstadt after arriving from the USA, 1901 TASS photo chronicle

"Aurora" as "Varyag"
On October 23, 1945, by decision of the People's Commissar of the USSR Navy, the cruiser "Aurora" was provided for the filming of a film about the cruiser "Varyag" to the film crew of the studio named after. Gorky for a period until June 1, 1946

The ship at that time was awaiting repairs at the Baltic Shipyard, where it was to be prepared for permanent installation. In connection with the decision to film, the shipbuilders had to plan work in two directions at once - restoring the ship and giving it the appearance of the Varyag cruiser. To make up the "Varyag" it was necessary to install a fourth, false funnel, several 152-mm guns, make a bow decoration and a commander's balcony at the aft end. The rest of the work - the restoration of the bow bridge, the wooden flooring of the upper deck (it was made of pine), the filling of holes in the sides and superstructures and their painting - were directly related to restoration work.

Preparations for filming took place from April 5 to July 15, 1946. After its completion, the cruiser was transferred to the Eastern Kronstadt roadstead, where the Aurora was to play the role of the Varyag. Almost all the personnel participated in the filming, transporting people, food, and materials from the shore on boats.
The last footage was filmed on September 29, the next day the cruiser was returned to the wall of the ship repair shop near Maslyany Buyan.

A fragment of the underwater part of the Aurora hull, subjected to through corrosion, 1984 vk.com/cruiser_aurora/Reproduction of the TsVMM

Souvenir bottom "Aurora"
The upcoming repair of the Aurora is the seventh in a row. Before this, the cruiser was sent to the dock in the period from 1984 to 1987, where the ship was repaired at the Zhdanov plant (now Severnaya Verf). While the ship was absent from its usual place near the Nakhimov School, and also after its return to the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution, rumors spread throughout Leningrad that the Aurora allegedly stood on a concrete foundation, the entire underwater part of the ship was cut off. This information began to spread even more actively after a story appeared in the press that residents of villages in the Leningrad Region, located near the Luga Bay, were selling pieces of the ship for souvenirs.

As Lev Polenov writes in his book, during the repair of the ship at the Zhdanov plant, the underwater part of the cruiser was actually separated from the surface. Instead of the old bottom, a new one was welded to the ship. The “unpreservable” old structure first stood for four years at the cutting base of the Vtorchermet production facility, located next to the plant where the Aurora was being repaired. In 1988, the underwater part was transported to Luga Bay near the village of Ruchi, where part of the legendary ship was loaded with ballast and scuttled.
There it is still located, and local residents and tourists shred pieces of the ship for souvenirs.

Gunner of the cruiser "Aurora" Evdokim Ognev

Our country is wide and vast. How many cities, villages, farmsteads there are in it... And each has its own history. And this little story is a grain of the history of a large powerful state.

There is a small river in the Voronezh province that makes many bends on its way. Because it is winding, and its name is Kriusha. In the 30s of the 18th century, Cossack settlers formed a village on the banks of the river, which became known as Kriusha. Later, when a new one with the same name was formed near the village, the ancient settlement began to be called Staraya Kriusha, and the younger one - Novaya.

Here in 1887, Evdokim Pavlovich Ognev was born, the gunner of the cruiser Aurora, who fired the historic shot that served as the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917.

In Kriush itself, the search for materials about a fellow villager was organized by librarian E.A. Artamonova. Old-timers remembered the Ognyov family and their relatives. It turned out that two cousins ​​of Evdokima Ognev live in Staraya Kriusha. The eldest of them, Maria Fominichna Ovcharova, said that Evdokim wrote to his sister Pelageya Pavlovna all the time from the fleet and from the Don, where he fought. In 1918, two soldiers from Ognev’s detachment stopped at Pelageya Pavlovna’s while passing through, and the commandant gave them his sister’s address.

Pavel Prokofievich (father of Evdokim Pavlovich), a baker by profession, often moved from place to place with his family in search of a better life. It is now reliably known that the Ognevs, after Staraya Kriushi, lived on the Tretiy Log farm (now Volgograd region), on the Popov farm, in the villages of Mikhailovskaya, Zotovskaya, Velikoknyazheskaya (now Proletarskaya, Rostov region).

Evdokima’s sister, Maria Pavlovna, said that as a child, his younger brother spent whole days on the river and loved to organize desperate “sea” battles with his peers on rafts, troughs, and abandoned old boats. During one such “battle” on Manych, the elder brother Fedotka sprained his leg, and Evdokim carried him home for seven kilometers in his arms...

When not on duty, friends often retired somewhere on the forecastle or in a carpentry workshop and had intimate conversations. Everyone talked about their lives and their native places. It was Evdokima Ognev’s turn: “I’m listening to you, brothers, and I’m thinking: how similar our lives are in sores. It seems that they spied it from each other... My father, Pavel Prokofievich, has been “lucky” all his life. His first wife soon died, leaving him with a daughter, Pelageya. He took the second one from the neighboring village of Novotroitskoye, Fedosya Zakharovna, my mother. We lived with the need for a hug. Dad baked kalachi, and we sipped kvass. They traveled through farms and villages in the district, through Cossack villages, looking for work. The father did not get along with the owners; he was known as a lover of truth. We poked around in strange corners - a family with eight mouths. As I grew up, my dad decided: “I’ll lay down my bones, and I’ll make the youngest, Evdokim, literate and bring him into the people.” Indeed, I went to the parish “university” for four winters. The father couldn’t stand it, he waved his hand: “It’s not fate, go, Evdokim, to become a day laborer.” When I turned fifteen, I went to Velikoknyazheskaya for a better life. Uncle Alexey advised.”

Ognev has been in military service since 1910. Initially, he was a sailor in the Baltic Fleet, and after graduating from gunnery school in 1911, he was assigned to the cruiser Aurora.
From the memoirs of A.V. Belyshev, former first commissioner of the cruiser Aurora:

“On October 25, 1917, the Aurora approached the Vasilyevsky Bridge along the Neva and anchored. At dawn, thousands of Petrograd workers came to the embankment, welcoming the sailors. Never before had such large warships sailed so far into the city.

The forces of revolution multiplied and grew stronger. Detachments of Red Guards and soldiers walked across the bridge from Vasilyevsky Island to the city center.

By morning, the entire city and its most important strategic points, except the Winter Palace, where the provisional government had taken refuge, were in the hands of the insurgent people. In the evening a tug approached the cruiser. Secretary of the Military Revolutionary Committee V.A. arrived on the Aurora. Antonov-Ovseenko. He said that the provisional government was presented with an ultimatum - to surrender. A response is expected before 9 o'clock. If the ultimatum is rejected, the revolutionary troops will take the Winter Palace, where the ministers have taken refuge, by storm. Antonov-Ovseenko warned that in this case fire would appear over the Peter and Paul Fortress. He will be the signal for the Aurora to fire a blank shot at Zimny, signaling the start of the attack by detachments of Red Guards, sailors and soldiers.

Winter taken. Hood. V.A. Serov. 1954

The Aurors were also to take part in the assault on the last stronghold of the old world. About fifty sailors under the command of sailor A.S. The Nevolina went ashore and joined the free detachment of Baltic sailors. The decisive moment has arrived. At about 9 o'clock the cruiser's command was raised by a combat alarm. Everyone took their places. The tension was rising. Shooting could be heard from the shore, but the Peter and Paul Fortress did not make itself felt. At 35 minutes past ten there was still no signal. And when the long-awaited fire broke out in the evening darkness, it was already 9 hours and 40 minutes.

Nasal, please! - the team thundered.

Gunner Evdokim Ognev pulled the trigger of a six-inch gun. It was as if a thunderclap tore through the air above the city. “Hurrah” was heard from Palace Square through the roar of the shot. Our people launched an assault.”

In 1918, to fight the enemies of the revolution, Evdokim Pavlovich was sent at the head of a detachment to Ukraine, where he soon died in battle.

Memoirs of P. Kirichkov, a participant in the events: “When the whites surrounded the carts, they were met with rare shots by a paramedic and a Red Army driver. All of them, along with the wounded, were hacked to death, and they tied me with reins, threw me into the bottom of the britzka and headed to the Vesely village to see the ataman. Krysin, a White Guard from Cossack Khomutts, with two fellow villagers rode next to the cart in which I was lying. The traitor boasted about killing the commander. I remember his story from beginning to end.

Monument to Evdokim Ognev in the village of Staraya Kriusha, Voronezh region

“...When the last cart left the village of Kazachiy Khomutets, three remained at the guns: Ognev, his orderly and a limping Cossack named Krysin from among those who joined the detachment in Cossack Khomutets. The shells ran out, the orderly led the horses out of the beam, and the three horsemen, under the whistling of White Guard bullets, began to retreat into the steppe. While the whites realized that there was no one else in front of them, and brought the horses out of the shelter, the three horsemen continued to leave unhindered. They were chased. The Cossacks fired while galloping. One bullet hit Ognev. For some reason Krysin began to lag behind. When the riders reached the old Scythian mound, Krysin stopped his horse. He tore the rifle from his shoulder and shot down the wounded Ognev. The orderly looked around, saw the commander falling, did not have time to understand anything - he was killed by the second shot. Krysin jumped off his horse, walked up to Ognev, cautiously turned him over and began to remove the boots from the dead man...”

Ognev was buried in a common grave on the Kazachiy Khomutets farm near Rostov-on-Don. He was also included by the Bolsheviks among the canonized heroes of October.

In his native village, the memory of the hero is still alive. In the rural park there is a monument to Evdokim Pavlovich Ognev. And the school museum contains a huge amount of information about the fellow countryman: parchments with memories of participants in the events, portraits of Ognev and even a cartridge case from the Aurora.

There were several myths about this.

The myth of the “Aurora salvo” was born literally the next day after the storming of the Winter Palace, the signal for which was a shot from the legendary cruiser. Such information began to appear in the local press. Subsequently, already in the Stalin years, the version that “Aurora” fired at Zimny ​​with real shells was actively replicated: this was written about in the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”; the play “Volley of the Aurora” was staged at the Moscow Art Theater, based on which a film of the same name was released in the 1960s; in 1937, Mikhail Romm shot the film “Lenin in October,” where the audience’s attention is also focused on this episode. The myth of the “volley” did not bypass literature: Alexey Tolstoy in “Walking Through Torment” writes about the roof of the Winter Palace being pierced by a shell.

This was all that remained from the recently noisy and drunken bustle of the capital. The idle crowds left the squares and streets. The Winter Palace was empty, pierced through the roof by a shell from the Aurora. (Alexey Tolstoy. “Walking through Torment.” Book 2)

On October 21, the Bolsheviks sent commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee to all revolutionary units of the troops. All the days before the uprising, vigorous combat training was going on in military units, factories and factories. Combat ships, such as the cruiser Aurora and Zarya Svoboda, also received certain assignments.<…>The revolutionary units of the troops, prepared for the uprising by the work of the Bolsheviks, accurately followed combat orders and fought side by side with the Red Guard. The navy did not lag behind the army. Kronstadt was a fortress of the Bolshevik Party, where the power of the Provisional Government was no longer recognized for a long time. Cruiser"Aurora" with the thunder of his cannons aimed at the Winter Palace, announced on October 25 the beginning of a new era - the era of the Great Socialist Revolution. (Short course on the history of the CPSU (b))

The cruiser "Aurora" and the icebreaker "Krasin" in the dry dock named after P.I. Veleshchinsky Kronstadt Marine Plant. 09.25.2014 © Andrey Sheremetev / AndreySheremetev.ru

Reality

The first and main exposers of the myth were the sailors themselves from the cruiser Aurora. The day after the events described, an article appeared in the Pravda newspaper in which the sailors tried to prove that there was no shelling of Zimny ​​on their part: if the cruiser had fired “for real,” not only the palace would have been completely destroyed, but also surrounding areas, they argued. The text of the refutation was as follows:

“To all honest citizens of the city of Petrograd from the crew of the cruiser “Aurora”, which expresses its sharp protest about the accusations thrown, especially the accusations that have not been verified, but cast a stain of shame on the crew of the cruiser. We declare that we did not come to destroy the Winter Palace, not to kill civilians, but to protect and, if necessary, die for freedom and revolution from counter-revolutionaries.
The press writes that the Aurora opened fire on the Winter Palace, but do gentlemen reporters know that the cannon fire we opened would have left no stone unturned not only from the Winter Palace, but also from the streets adjacent to it? But is this really the case?

We address you, workers and soldiers of Petrograd! Don't believe provocative rumors. Don’t believe them that we are traitors and rioters, and check the rumors yourself. As for the shots from the cruiser, only one blank shot was fired from a 6-inch gun, indicating a signal for all ships standing on the Neva, and calling them to be vigilant and ready. We ask all editors to reprint.
Chairman of the Ship Committee
A. Belyshev
Comrade Chairman P. Andreev
Secretary /signature/.” (“Pravda”, No. 170, October 27, 1917)

For many years, while official propaganda benefited from the myth about the power of revolutionary weapons, in which a single blank shot grew into a whole salvo of military weapons, no one remembered this note. Already during the Khrushchev “thaw” this text appeared in the magazine “New World”, in the article by V. Cardin “Legends and Facts” (1966, no. 2, p. 237). However, the newspaper Pravda did not respond favorably to quoting itself 50 years ago, publishing in March 1967 a message on behalf of the Secretariat of the Writers' Union of the USSR, warning Soviet people against reading articles “imbued with false tendencies towards unfounded revision and belittlement of revolutionary and heroic traditions of the Soviet people." The article did not leave the country's top leadership indifferent. In one of his speeches to the Politburo, L.I. Brezhnev was indignant: “After all, some of our writers (and they are published) go so far as to say that there was supposedly no Aurora salvo, that it was supposedly a blank shot, etc., that there were not 28 Panfilov men, that there were fewer of them, This fact was almost invented that Klochko was not there and there was no call from him, that “Moscow is behind us and we have nowhere to retreat...”.

Many years later, during perestroika, the article, “imbued with a false tendency,” was reprinted in the Ogonyok magazine.

The military also refute the myth about the shelling of Zimny ​​from a cruiser: the ship, which really gained military glory by participating in the Russian-Japanese and the First World War, had been undergoing major repairs since 1916, which means that all the ammunition from it should have been long gone by the time of the October events removed - in accordance with applicable instructions.

Another myth is that the Aurora’s shot is a signal to verify the time of the revolutionary squadron, sounded at 21.00 on October 25, 1917. (" ... No one set the task for the revolutionary sailors to give a signal for the assault. They simply gave a military signal, which was given regularly, so that the time could be reconciled on all ships... This practice now exists in armies and navies around the world. …I think that it is possible to say with a high degree of accuracy that the shot thundered exactly at 21.00.…”)

Let's turn to theory and history:

Accurate knowledge of time on the high seas is necessary for ships to reliably determine location (especially longitude). A lot of effort was put in by scientists, sailors, and watchmakers around the world to achieve the necessary accuracy and develop error-free methods. The British Parliament even offered a generous reward for successfully solving this problem. For example, at the equator, a time error of just 1 minute leads to an inaccuracy in determining the location on the Earth’s surface of almost 30 km. All this was widely known in 1917 (let's look at the Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron). The main way to determine a place out of sight of the coast then was astronomical.

Ships check chronometers (in those years with coastal ones) immediately before going to sea, in favorable hydrometeorological conditions for astronomical luminaries and phenomena with accurate knowledge of longitude. Yes, and it is advisable to check the time using such a signal only far from the coast on a separate voyage of a squadron of ships when a large error is detected in the reckoning of place or a serious error in the readings of the chronometers on one of the ships. I think it is clear that this does not apply to the ships stationed on the Neva.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a “single time system” already existed in Petrograd - at the suggestion of D.I. Mendeleev, a cable was laid from the “normal”, i.e. standard, clock of the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures to the General Staff, under the arch of which a clock was installed that never runs or lags behind with the inscription on the dial: “Correct time”. This inscription can still be read today - walk under the arch to the Winter Palace or Nevsky Prospekt.

As you know, the tradition of the noon shot for civilian needs in St. Petersburg was firmly established on February 6, 1865. On this day, at exactly noon, a 60-pound caliber signal gun was fired from the Admiralty building, while the gun fired at a signal transmitted via cable directly from the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1872, in connection with the construction of the Admiralty courtyard with houses, the Naval Ministry proposed moving the signal gun to the Peter and Paul Fortress. On September 24, 1873, the noon shot was fired for the first time from the bastion of the fortress.

Since 1856, the British astronomical naval yearbook “Nautical Almanac” (published since 1766) has been supplied by the Maritime Department to all ships of the Navy (published since 1766), from which tables of lunar distances for determining longitude on the high seas were withdrawn in 1907 (instructions for calculating them were printed until 1924) Only in 1930 did our country begin to publish its own astronomical yearbook.

It is interesting to note that until January 1, 1925, the astronomical day began at noon, and the RSFSR switched to a time system based on the Greenwich meridian on February 8, 1919. And although the new style of chronology was introduced by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 26, 1918, double dates appeared in the headlines of many newspapers already in 1917.

The production of marine watches (not chronometers - they are foreign) is being organized in the Workshop of Nautical Instruments of the Main Hydrographic Directorate. Russian nautical instruments were awarded diplomas at international exhibitions in 1907 (Bordeaux) and 1912 (St. Petersburg).

If we consider that the speed of sound was measured by the Milan Academy of Sciences back in the 17th century, it is clear that the accuracy of a signal shot from a cannon, with the passing of the age of sail in the mid-19th century, and the development of watchmaking, could only satisfy time control for everyday civilian needs. For example, on January 9, 1917, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the actions of the German auxiliary cruiser (sailing ship!) Seeadler in capturing the steamer Gladys Royle were initially perceived as the ancient, ancient custom of checking the chronometer with a shot from a mortar, and responded with a flag. By the end of the 19th century, the most widespread system of time signaling in the ports of the world was electrically driven signal balls. The transmission of time signals by telegraph was also widely developed, especially with the advent of Yuz's direct-printing machines (remember the term "Yuzogram"?).

In 1912 - 1913, on the initiative of France, 2 international conferences were held on the use of radio to transmit precise time signals (ONOGO system). The first chairman of the international commission was Academician O.A. Backlund (1846-1916) – director of the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1914, the first experiment in transmitting time signals was carried out in St. Petersburg (regular broadcasting began on December 1, 1920, although it did not become particularly known to the fleet).

Since 1910, radio stations in Germany, England and France have already been transmitting time signals; since 1912, they have been transmitted using the Venier principle, which makes it possible to determine clock errors with an accuracy of 0.01 seconds; since 1913, at least 9 radio stations in the world have transmitted similar signals.

The most famous document of 1720 is “The Book of the Marine Charter. About everything that concerns good management when the fleet is at sea,” signals for controlling ships when sailing together were introduced. Yes, both flags and cannon shots, drumbeats, ship bells, and musket shots were used to serve them. Based on the experience of military operations of the fleet in the Mediterranean Sea in 1797, “Complete signals to be issued in the fleets of His Imperial Majesty” were compiled. In 1814 A.N. Butakov is compiling a complete dictionary of semaphore signals. After the actual creation by Vice Admiral G.I. Butakov published the “Book of Evolutionary Signals” and the “Code of Naval Signals” on the tactics of steam ships in 1868. They were based on flag signals. For night signaling, even before the creation of Morse code, flashlights were used. The corrected “Code of Signals” of 1890 was rightly criticized by Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov. With the advent of electricity on ships, the Ratier type signal lantern became famous. When darkening ships, forearm and wake lights were used to control formations. Various figures raised on halyards and shields with signs were also used. Signaling and communications were taken seriously. The decoding of the signals was spied on.

From the destruction of ships in the Battle of Tsushima, the command of the Russian fleet concluded that in addition to flags and searchlight signals, it is necessary to have another type of signaling that would not depend on the presence or absence of superstructures and masts. These are signal flares. The Veri pistol (according to another transcription by Baer) is still in service with the Navy (more than 100 years!). At the beginning of the century, they were imported from abroad, they were expensive, and therefore many domestic analogues were created. Particularly famous was the system of captain 2nd rank Zhukov (1908), although it was intended mainly for sending combat and evolutionary signals; for everyday signals, which include time signals, in his opinion, signaling with flags and lanterns was sufficient. The question is, was the famous red light from the Peter and Paul Fortress a signal flare?

As we see, the need for such an archaic method of checking the chronometers of completely modern, well-equipped warships (well, not at all like Francis Drake’s “Golden Hind”, despite the troubled times in the country), is like a cannon shot, and even in the middle of Petrograd at the beginning of the 20th century clearly absent, as it is now. For the needs of time control, bells were sounded on the ship itself during the watch.

All the more surprising would be the delivery of such a regular signal by a rather expensive main-caliber artillery charge. After dismantling the 37-mm Hotchkiss guns from the Aurora, 76.2-mm anti-aircraft guns of the Lander system would most likely be used as signal guns (there is also a term for salute guns). A blank salvo from a 152-mm gun of the Peter and Paul Fortress still shakes the glass across the city, and in the Hermitage, before the gun turned towards Vasilyevsky Island, an alarm went off - a lot of glass would have been blown out on the English Embankment - this is clearly not the case for a regular signal. An example is November 20, 1992, when the midday shot was fired for the only time in the courtyard of the Naryshkin bastion.

Let's return to Aurora:

The ship, under the command of Lieutenant N.A. Erickson, on October 22, 1917, after completion of repairs at the Franco-Russian plant, was prepared to go to sea to test the machines (and not for withdrawal from Petrograd for counter-revolutionary purposes, as was presented by the Bolsheviks ) and even took part of the ammunition on board - there is war in the Baltic. There are quite accurate chronometers on board, as on most ships of that time, British-made (very protected due to their importance and tradition). The navigator has a “Nautical Almanac” with a Guide to the Use of the English Naval Monthly and, of course, other nautical instruments.

The chief of the watch is midshipman L.A. Demin (1897-1973), future rear admiral, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, who prepared more than 100 nautical charts and sailing directions, for 16 years (from 1957 to 1973) he headed the Leningrad branch of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodetic Survey society - he’s still young, but he won’t forget to start such a chronometer?!

The situation with the gun sights is a little unclear - there is a version that they were removed and locked somewhere in the cabin. But think about whether someone would then stand on ceremony with the locked cabin. The cruiser's commanders do not remember this.

The bright spotlights of the Mangin system are also operational; a similar signal could have been sent by them.

Despite the statements of S.N. Poltorak, Aurora was still assigned tasks for certain actions in preparation for the assault on the Winter Palace. These are orders of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies No. 1219 dated 10.24.17 on transferring the ship to Combat Readiness and No. 1253 dated 10.24.17 on the task of restoring traffic on the Nikolaevsky Bridge. By order No. 1125, Alexander Viktorovich Belyshev was appointed commissar of the ship, even indicating the time of 12 hours 20 minutes. And by a telegram from Tsentrobalt dated 10.24.17, “Aurora” was subordinated to the Military Military Commission; this document was registered at the Main Naval Headquarters on 10.27.17 under No. 5446 (it was accepted by the duty officer, Warrant Officer Lesgaft). They counted on the pressure of the cruiser's guns, they even sent checks. The majority of the team is on the side of the Military Revolutionary Committee.

Having taken measurements of the unfamiliar Neva fairway "Aurora" at 3:30 p.m. On 10.25.17, she anchored at the Nikolaevsky Bridge opposite the Rumyantsev mansion (English Embankment, 44) and carried out the order to ensure traffic on the bridge.

By 19 o'clock, the combat-ready destroyers "Zabiyaka" and "Samson", a little earlier the patrol ship "Yastreb" and other ships entered the Neva, having completed the transition from Gelsinfors (Helsinki) with a call at Kronstadt.

It would be very naive to believe that such a transition was made by ships without reliable knowledge of time (and, as a consequence, longitude), even in the presence of visual references, and they did not correct it in the port of Kotlin Island, equipped with everything necessary for this, but preferred to “ask again”, according to version of S.N. Poltorak, near Aurora. The mine war, which was widely waged in the Baltic, you know, is a dangerous thing and you need to go along a strictly tested channel, and the forts of Kronstadt are ready.

The radio stations (including medium-wave tones) of the cruiser and other ships are also in perfect order. Radiograms of the listed ships can be found in the Central State Administration of the Navy, case numbers have even been published in the open press.

Between the ships, the Peter and Paul Fortress, in which there is a uniform confusion with the guns and artillerymen, which G.I. Blagonravov can barely cope with (having called sailors-gunners from the training ground), and the surrounded Winter Palace on a boat (from the Aurora?) V. rushes about. A. Antonov-Ovseenko. (this is also known from the memoirs of L.D. Trotsky).

Let's consider the second part of the assumption - the Aurora shot sounded exactly at 21.00. The most often called 21.40, 21.45. Eyewitnesses of the events (former members of the Provisional Government, Aurors, deputies) and reporters of Petrograd newspapers of those years with different political leanings indicate the time quite accurately and it does not vary too much.

Comparing and analyzing their memories, newspaper publications (and this is a topic for a separate and serious article), archival documents, one can be convinced that the former Aurora commissioner A.V. Belyshev says 21.40 is absolutely correct. Only now it all started with a grenade explosion in the palace, then the troops defending the Winter Palace began firing guns.

The Aurora salvo was required, but it had something completely different

meaning -" Only one blank shot was fired from a 6-inch gun, signaling a signal to all ships moored on the Neva and calling on them to be vigilant and ready.“This is from the text of the letter from the crew of the cruiser “Aurora” - I am attaching it to the article. It’s very surprising to me that it hasn’t been published in full for a long time. What prompted the team to write this letter becomes clear from other publications of those days. And the surname of the until now unknown secretary of the cruiser’s Sudcom Committee is Miss (he is Estonian by nationality).

I understand that this is how the Aurora shot is historically correct and should be called.

And the shot was fired (by gunner E.P. Ognev from the team of A.V. Belyshev) on a note sent to the Aurora by Antonov-Ovseenko or Blagonravov. The destroyers also fired, and even the signal cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress fired. There were destructions of the Winter Palace and city buildings.

And the shot, according to historians, was fired at 21:40, while the assault began after midnight, which, alas, does not confirm the theory of the Aurora’s signal function in the capture. However, the Cruiser Aurora is depicted on the Order of the October Revolution, which itself was awarded in 1967.

“On deck, my ears are filled with ringing. The bells are ringing. The visitor rarely perceives them as a countdown, but rather as a signal to depart. And indeed, the “departure” takes place: “Aurora” goes into the depths of history, to 1917, on the main day of the century - October 25, sailing through the seas and oceans of its destiny.

Of course, the small group of full-time museum guides cannot serve the gigantic flow of visitors. Fortunately, all or almost all of the sailors and petty officers on the cruiser are tour guides. It's just amazing - almost everything.

It is difficult to give a tour of the ship. His biography includes the Battle of Tsushima, the War of 1914, numerous campaigns in distant countries, the Great October Revolution, and besieged Leningrad. The ship museum has more than six hundred exhibits!

For conscript sailors, life is scheduled minute by minute. Excursions are conducted in free, personal time. But imagine how great it is when, after standing watch, throwing off his work uniform, a slender guide of about nineteen or twenty years old, in a pea coat and cap, comes out to the gangway and says to visitors:

Hello comrades! I am senior sailor Alekhin Vladimir Konstantinovich - today I will introduce you to the history of the legendary ship.

Alekhine - with a reddish mustache, with lively, inquisitively moving eyes. Stays loose. Above the hats, berets, scarves, caps is his cap. The guy is tall. Lighting up eyes. The speech is a little rushed. Maybe it’s the biting wind on the deck that’s to blame: a dark-skinned Turkmen woman, not used to the cold, is shivering nearby.

The bow of the cruiser. The six-inch tank gun from which gunner Evdokim Ognev fired the signal shot at Zimny ​​was, as always, crowded. Tourists speaking Spanish - apparently guests from Latin America - are temperamentally arguing about something. One of them - young, serious, with Ilyich's profile on the lapel of his jacket - makes notes in a large notebook; The questions he asks are not idle, not dictated by simple curiosity:

How many troops did Kerensky have?

What superiority in forces did Lenin have?

Who owned the stations? Telegraph?

Everyone listens very carefully to the answers. They follow the speech of the guide, then the translator.

Finally, space near the tank gun is freed up. Alekhine's group settles down to take photographs. A lightly dressed Turkmen woman gets closer to the silent guide. The wind flutters her scarf and moves her tight black braids. Cold. If it weren’t for such an official situation, Volodya Alekhine would have put his warm peacoat on her shoulders. But now it’s impossible. Therefore, his face seems stern than circumstances require, and his red mustache seems prickly.

Denser, denser! - the photographer commands. - Historical weapon! A photo for life!..

It would not be an exaggeration if we say: everything is interesting in the Aurora Museum! However, you can’t tell everything.”

The officials and oligarchs who staged a drinking binge on the legendary ship not only were not punished, but also achieved the disbandment of its crew

On October 9, the electronic directory “Weapons of Russia” reported that the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, signed a directive on the disbandment of the military crew of ship No. 1 of the Russian Navy, the legendary cruiser Aurora. From December 1, only maintenance personnel will remain there, consisting of three cleaners and six security guards.

The solution is unique. Never before in Russian (Soviet) history have cleaners served on a warship, even if it became a museum. This is disrespect for the heroic history of our fleet. Of course, the current “masters” of Russia do not like the fact that a blank shot was fired from the Aurora’s gun in 1917, which during the October Revolution served as a signal for the start of the assault on the Winter Palace. But “Aurora” has many other glorious pages in its combat biography.

The cruiser was laid down in St. Petersburg at the New Admiralty shipyard on May 23, 1897, launched on May 11, 1900, and entered service with the Russian Navy in July 1903. During the Russo-Japanese War, having made the transition as part of the 2nd Pacific Squadron to the Far East, the cruiser Aurora received its baptism of fire in the Battle of Tsushima on May 14-15, 1905. Returning to the Baltic Sea, the Aurora sailed for a long period as a training ship, on which midshipmen of the Naval Corps underwent shipboard practice. During this period, the cruiser “Aurora” took an active part in hostilities in the Baltic Sea as part of the 2nd brigade of cruisers, and at the end of 1916 it was sent for repairs in Petrograd.

In 1917, the Aurora crew actively participated in the February and October revolutionary events, as well as the subsequent civil war and repelling foreign intervention.

In 1922-1923, the cruiser “Aurora” was one of the first in the Baltic to be put into operation and became a training ship, on which, until 1940, naval school cadets underwent shipboard practice. The ship sailed a lot and visited the ports of a number of foreign countries. In 1924, the cruiser was awarded the Red Banner of the USSR Central Executive Committee, and in 1927 - the Order of the Red Banner.

The ship was intended to perform the functions of a reconnaissance cruiser and combat enemy merchant shipping at a short distance from the bases, as well as to support battleships in squadron battles. In fact, she could not solve any of these problems due to the insufficient (for the 1900s) cruising range for a cruiser, low speed, weak weapons and protection, therefore, from 1908 she served as a training cruiser.

Structurally, it belonged to the type of armored cruisers, tactically - to the trade fighter cruisers.

Launching

Built according to the shipbuilding program of 1895.

The irony of History - the cruiser, which was considered the herald of the revolution, the gravedigger of the Russian Empire and the Imperial family, was solemnly launched on May 11 (24), 1900, at the personal command of the All-Russian Emperor Nicholas II, in the presence of two empresses (the dowager and the tsar’s wife) and numerous members Imperial family.

On September 25 (November 8), 1903, the Aurora left Kronstadt for the Far East, after calling at Portland in early October, it arrived in the Mediterranean Sea and on October 25 arrived at the port of La Spezia (Italy), where it joined the detachment of ships of the rear admiral at sea A. A. Virenius (EBR "Oslyabya", 3 cruisers, 9 destroyers, 3 DF steamships), next to the Far East to strengthen the Port Arthur squadron. Sailed along the route: Bizerte (Tunisia, France) - Piraeus - port of Suez - Djibouti. While stationed in Djibouti (French Somalia) in connection with the outbreak of the Russian-Japanese War (!), the entire detachment was recalled to the Baltic on February 2, 1904.

In preparation for the new cruise, the cruiser received three Maxim system machine guns, 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, it left Kronstadt for the Pacific Ocean to the theater of military operations of the Russo-Japanese War. I walked along the route Revel (30.08-28.09) - Libau (2.10) - Skagen (7.10). Then he followed as part of the 4th detachment under the command of Rear Admiral O.A. Enquist. During the "Ghull Incident" ca. 1:00 10.10.1904 was abeam of a Russian detachment that was firing at ships mistaken for Japanese destroyers. At the same time, several shells hit the cruiser, from which the ship's priest, Father Anastasy, was mortally wounded and one gunner was slightly wounded. Then the detachment followed the route Tangier (Sultanate of Morocco, 16-23.10) - Dakar (30.10-3.11) - Gabun (13-18.11) - Great Fish Bay (Portuguese West Africa, 23-24.11) - Angra Pequena (German South-West Africa, 28.11-4.12) - Nossi Be Bay on the island. Madagascar (French colony, 12/16/1904-03/3/1905). In Madagascar, all detachments of the squadron again gathered, which then proceeded through the Strait of Malacca to Kamrang Bay (French protectorate of Annam, 03/31-13/04) - Van Fong Bay (French Annam, 13-26/04), where the squadron of Z.P. Rozhdestvensky was joined by a squadron of counter- Admiral N.I. Nebogatov, - Cua Be Bay (26.04). On 05/01/1905, the cruiser as part of the combined squadron left Kua Be Bay to travel to Vladivostok through the Korea Strait.

World War I

Winter 1914-1915 underwent modernization, the number of 152-mm guns was increased to 14 due to the dismantling of all 75-mm anti-mine caliber guns. The cruiser received four 75 mm and one 40 mm “aerocannons” (anti-aircraft guns). During the 1915 campaign, the cruiser was on patrol duty west of the central mine and artillery position in the Baltic, guarding mine sweeping operations, and made trips to explore hidden skerry fairways in Finland.

Since May 1916, he was assigned to the 6th maneuver group (armored cruiser Gromoboy, cruisers Aurora and Diana). On August 1 and 2, he conducted training firing at a training ground near Hainland Island to determine the possibility of destroying coastal wire barriers with naval artillery fire during the planned landing operation. The results were disappointing - out of 209 6-inch shells, three hit the wire and one more hit the trench. After the completion of dredging work on the Moonsund Canal, the cruiser was transferred by this canal to the Gulf of Riga on August 14, 1916 and became part of the Naval Defense Forces of the Gulf of Riga; based on Kuivast.

In November 1916, the ship was sent for major repairs to Petrograd, to the Franco-Russian plant. During the winter of 1916-1917, steam engines were overhauled and new steam boilers of the Belleville-Dolgolenko system were installed. The main caliber artillery was modernized with an increase in firing range from 53 to 67 ca. 6 76.2-mm anti-aircraft guns of the F. F. Lender system were installed (at the expense of all the previous “aero guns”), a new radio station and a sound-underwater communication device were installed.

Revolutions of 1917

The cruiser stationed in Petrograd found itself at the center of the events of two revolutions in a year. Being in close contact with the factory workers, the sailors of the cruiser Aurora were involved in revolutionary agitation. This was facilitated by the general situation in Russia, which the war had brought to the brink of disaster. The relationship between the officers and the crew on the cruiser became tense to the limit. On February 27 (March 12), the crew demanded that the commander release three imprisoned agitators from arrest. When dispersing the meeting that followed, the cruiser commander, Captain 1st Rank M.I. Nikolsky and senior officer P.P. Ogranovich opened fire on the team with pistols; there were wounded. 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, and most of the crew went ashore and joined the uprising.

To exercise the democratic rights of sailors on the Aurora, a ship committee was elected. Based on the results of a secret vote on March 3 (26), on the issue of the form of government in Russia, it was unanimously decided that this form is a democratic republic. Throughout the spring-summer-autumn of 1917, the political situation on the ship was characterized by a gradual loss of confidence in the Provisional Government of Russia on the part of both sailors and officers. The influence of the Bolshevik party on the ship grew. After the bloody events of February 27-28 (March 13-14), relations between the ship's committee and the officers became relatively normal: the officers did not go against the command regarding political beliefs, and the ship's committee did not interfere with the officers in terms of service, discipline and work on the ship.

When the political situation in the country deteriorated again in October 1917 and the conflict between the Provisional Government and the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies reached a dead end, most of the team was on the side of the RSDLP(b). By decision of the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet, the already practically repaired Aurora was left in Petrograd and subordinated to the Petrograd Soviet. 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 Petrosoviet, the Aurora team captured and brought down the Nikolaevsky Bridge in Petrograd, which connected Vasilievsky 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 Commissioner Belyshev, gave the signal for the assault on the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was located.

On November 28 (December 11), 1917, after repairs, the Aurora returned to the 2nd Cruiser Brigade in Sveaborg. After the decree on the dissolution of the old fleet and the organization of a new RKKF on a voluntary basis, most of the team was demobilized. There are only 40 people left on the ship, needed for ongoing work and security. In 1918, civil war began 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 Aurora's 152 mm guns were removed and sent to Astrakhan to arm floating batteries. Most of the cruiser's sailors went, partly to the fronts of the civil war, and partly just to go home. In 1922, the ship was transferred to the Kronstadt port for long-term storage (mothballed).

Interwar period and Great Patriotic War 1941-1945

Plaque for the cruiser's tank (bow) gun

When the active restoration of the Russian Naval Forces began in 1922, it was decided to restore the Aurora as a training ship, not least because she had already undergone a major overhaul four years earlier. After restoration and manning in 1922-1924, the cruiser Aurora became part of the Baltic Sea Naval Forces as a training ship. The ship now had 10x1 - new 130 mm guns and 2x1 - 76.2 mm anti-aircraft guns. In 1924-1930, the ship, together with the training ship "Komsomolets", made a number of training voyages with cadets of higher naval schools, visited the ports of Bergen and Trondheim (Norway, 1924, 1925 and 1930), Murmansk and Arkhangelsk (USSR, 1924 and 1925) , Gothenburg (Sweden, 1925), Kiel (Germany, 1926), Copenhagen (1928), Swinemunde (Germany, 1929), Oslo (1930). The merit of Aurora in training competent specialists for the fleet of the young Soviet state was enormous. On the 10th anniversary of the Revolution, the training cruiser was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In 1933, the ship was examined and it was concluded that a second major overhaul was necessary. Since 1933 at the shipyard named after. A. Marti repair work was carried out in Leningrad, but due to the high workload of this plant with the construction of new ships in 1935, repairs were suspended and the ship began to serve as a non-propelled training base for first-year cadets of naval schools. During the winter, the cruiser served as a floating base for submarines. The ship was planned to be decommissioned.

Memorial ship

Even before the end of the war, in 1944, a decision was made to restore the cruiser as a monument to the active participation of sailors in the 1917 Revolution. 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 installed on the ship in 1917, but, unfortunately, in the arsenals it was possible to find guns only on land-based machines. The ship's shields for them were made according to the drawings of Auror veterans. The underwater part of the hull was made waterproof using a concrete “shirt” placed on the inner surface of the ship’s skin. The internal premises were converted for the life and service of cadets and teachers. The power plant was removed, with the exception of two boilers for heating and a medium steam engine, retained as a teaching tool. The superstructures were restored, including the complete replacement of the chimneys, which were badly damaged during the war. As a result, the ship became a full-fledged training base for students of the Nakhimov School, opposite 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 and served as ship crews.

Under Soviet rule, the Aurora cruiser became a training cruiser and was revered as one of the symbols of the revolution. The fate of this cruiser is told in the children's cartoon of the same name (1976), the song from which “What are you dreaming about, cruiser Aurora?” gained popularity and became strongly associated with the ship. During repairs, in 1945-46, the cruiser participated in the filming of the film “Cruiser Varyag”, playing the role of “Varyag”.

The museum on the ship began to be created in 1950 by personnel, Auror 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, in connection with the construction of a new residential building for the NVMU, “Aurora” ceased to be an educational base, and the former quarters of the school’s students were transferred to the museum, whose staff was increased to 5 people. The upper deck and forecastle with a 152 mm gun, as well as the premises of the ship's museum, were open to ordinary visitors. The rest of the ship's premises were inaccessible. At the same time as 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 cruiser Aurora was awarded the Order of the October Revolution.

At the end of the 1980s, the ship's hull began to be in dire need of major repairs. In 1984-1987, repair and restoration work and re-equipment were carried out on the cruiser. The work was carried out at the Leningrad Shipyard named after. A. A. Zhdanov according to the project of the Northern Design Bureau. The work was as follows:

The last exit of the cruiser "Aurora", launched in 1900, on the Neva

The underwater part of the ship's hull (1.2 m above the waterline) was considered beyond repair; it was cut off and sent to cutting. The cut-off lower part was towed to the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland to the unfinished Ruchi naval base, scuttled near the coast, where it is currently being torn apart for metal. Instead, a new welded underwater part (model) was made. The wood and copper cladding were not recreated. There are no screws.

• 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 stern main machine was put in order and installed in its place. The carapace deck was rebuilt. Most of the old armor plates (except for the lower belt) were returned to it.

• The superstructures were installed in place and mostly externally decorated to resemble the ship as it appeared in 1917. The pipes and masts were made anew, since the old ones were also “new”. They decided to leave the guns on coastal installations.

• Almost all of the ship's interior has been redesigned. On the battery deck there is a museum, a compartment for museum employees, a crew catering unit with a galley, an officers' living quarters, a wardroom and a commander's salon. Below, on the living deck, are the new crew living quarters. All residential blocks are equipped in accordance with the habitability requirements of a modern navy. In two aft engine rooms there is a machine-boiler room with auxiliary mechanisms and additional combat dynamo machines. The premises of the boiler departments are occupied by modern PES (power and survivability station), 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 refrigerator compartment and the central post remained unredesigned.

After repair and restoration work, the Aurora was returned to its mooring site on August 16, 1987 - at the Nakhimovsky VMU. Currently, in addition to scientific staff, the ship has a team of 6 officers, 12 midshipmen and 42 sailors.

Cruiser commanders

Cruiser commanders

• Cap. 1st rank A. A. Melnitsky (November 1897 - October 1898),
• cap. 1st rank P. P. Molas (October-November 1878, November 1898 - January 1900),
• VRID of commander cap. 1st rank A.P. Kitkin (January-June 1900),
• cap. 1st rank N.K. Yenish (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 of 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 (from 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. Arsenyev (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).

Historical images

• The cruiser Aurora is depicted on the Order of the October Revolution, which itself was awarded (in 1967).
• Due to the fact that most of the sailors were natives of the Vyatka province, the Aurora banner was transferred for eternal storage to the city of Kirov (Vyatka) and is now in the Diorama Museum.
• During the filming of the film "Cruiser Varyag" another pipe was attached to the Aurora.

Helpful information

• Address: 197046, St. Petersburg, Petrovskaya embankment, cruiser “Aurora”; tel. 230-8440
• Directions: St. m. "Gorkovskaya", tram. 2, 6, 30, 63
• Operating mode: Every day 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.

Notes

Literature

• Materials of the Central Naval Museum.
• "Aurora". - TSB. Ed. 2nd, vol. 41, pp. 117-118.
• “Aurora”: album - L.: Sov. artist, 1967.
• Ammon G. A., Berezhnoy S. S. Heroic ships of the Russian and Soviet navies. - M.: Voenizdat, 1981. P. 57.
• Andreev V. Revolutionary keep pace. - M., 1973. P.168-177.
• Aseev N. Land and people. - M.: 1961. P. 203.
• Badeev A.“Aurora.” - In the book: Father’s House: collection. - M.: “Mol. Guard", 1978.
• Baltic Fleet. Historical sketch. - M., Military Publishing House, 1960.
• Bartev G. P. Baltic dawns. - Yaroslavl: Upper Volga book. publishing house, 1987.
• Bartev G.P. et al. Cruiser "Aurora": a guide to the museum. - L.: Lenizdat, 1983.
• Bartev G. P., Myasnikov V. A. Pages of the chronicle of “Aurora”: Documentary essay. - Yaroslavl: Upper Volga book. publishing house, 1975.
• Belkin S.I. Stories about famous ships. - L.: Shipbuilding, 1979.
• Belyshev A. Baltic glory. - Kaliningrad, 1959. P. 41-46.
• Belyshev A. How it was (Memoirs of the first commissioner of the cruiser "Aurora"). - In the book: Hero Ships. - M., 1976. S. 106-107.
• Berezov P. A salvo from the Aurora. - M.: Politizdat, 1967.
• Burkovsky B.V., Kuleshov I.M. Cruiser "Aurora": a guide to the museum. - L., Lenizdat. 1967.
• Burkovsky B.V. et al. Cruiser "Aurora": a guide to the museum. - L.: Lenizdat, 1979.
• Burov A.V. Blockade day after day. - L., 1979. S. 55, 63, 67, 388.
• Burov V. N., Yukhnin V. E. The cruiser "Aurora": a monument of domestic shipbuilding. - L.: Lenizdat, 1987.
• Great October. Collection of documents. - M.: 1961. S. 52, 53, 327, 340, 351, 352.
• Godunov M. N. Cruiser "Aurora": a guide to the museum. - L.: Lenizdat, 1988.
• Grishchinsky K.K. Heroes are next to us. - L.: Lenizdat, 1982. P. 70-84.
• Dubinkin V. E. Gunner from the cruiser "Aurora": A documentary story. Voronezh book publishing house, 1936.
• Kozlov I. A., Shlomin V. S. Northern Fleet. - M., 1966. S. 78, 83.
• Krestyaninov V. Ya. Battle of Tsushima May 14 - 15, 1905 - St. Petersburg: "Galeya Print", 1998. - ISBN 5-8172-0002-3.
• Letov B. Hero ships. - M.-L.: Detgiz, 1950.
• Maksimikhin I. A. Legendary ship. - M.: “Mol.guard”, 1977.
• Melnikov R. M. Monument ships // “Man. Sea. Technique". - L.: Shipbuilding, 1987. pp. 301-321.
• Moiseev. I.I. List of ships of the Russian steam and armored fleet (from 1861 to 1917). - M.: Voenizdat, 1948. P. 76.
• Nevolin A. S. Aurors. - M.: Voenizdat, 1987.
• Polenov L. L. Cruiser Aurora". L.: Shipbuilding, 1987.
• Polenov L. L."Aurora": secrets of a hundred years of history. - St. Petersburg: “Nordmed-Izdat”, 1997. - (Events, ships, people).
• Pronin M. P. Legendary cruiser. L.: Lenizdat, 1957.
• Pacific Fleet. - M.: Voenizdat, 1966. P. 59, 62, 63, 134, 270.
• Chernov B. M. The fate of the Aurora is high. - M.: Politich. lit., 1983.
• Kharchenko V.I. The bells are ringing on the Aurora. - M.: Publishing house. DOSAAF, 1967.
• Kholodnyak A."Aurora". - L., 1925.
• Yunga E. S. Cruiser Aurora". - M.: Voenizdat, 1949.

Cruiser in art

• Nikolai Cherkashin. Torpedo for Aurora
• Mikhail Weller. Zero hours

• Soviet cartoon "Aurora" with the song "What are you dreaming about, the cruiser Aurora..."
• Lenin in October