The main event in the history of the cruiser Aurora is considered to be a blank shot, which became the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace during the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Much less is known about the main military event in the cruiser’s history—Aurora’s participation in the tragic Battle of Tsushima for the Russian fleet.
The Aurora is undoubtedly a lucky ship. The cruiser, whose technical characteristics were significantly inferior to the most modern ships of that time, not only managed to survive the battle, but also avoided the shameful participation of lowering the flag in front of the victorious enemy.The ship, which was launched on May 24, 1900 in the presence of the Emperor Nicholas II and empresses Maria Feodorovna And Alexandra Fedorovna, was accepted into the Russian fleet in June 1903 and by the time the Russo-Japanese War began it was one of the newest.
The newest, but by no means the most advanced. The problems with the Aurora began at the design stage and never ended. The deadlines for the construction of the vessel were repeatedly missed, and when it came to testing, the engineers clutched their heads from the huge number of shortcomings and shortcomings. Due to the overload of state-owned shipyards in St. Petersburg, where the construction of the Aurora was underway, work on its construction was carried out in a hurry and at the same time with a lack of workers.
The Aurora's engines and boilers turned out to be unreliable, the cruiser never reached its planned speed, and there were many questions about the ship's armament.
- © blackseafleet-21.com / The first Russian warship - the frigate "Eagle".
© Public Domain
Peter Pickart
The ship "Lefort". Unknown artist
I.K. Aivazovsky. "Wreck of a Ship"
K. V. Krugovikhin “The wreck of the ship “Ingermanland” on August 30, 1842 off the coast of Norway,” 1843.
I. K. Aivazovsky “The Ship “The Twelve Apostles.” 1897
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© Public Domain / “Varyag” after the battle of 1904. A list to the left side is visible.
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© Public Domain / Explosion "Korean".
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© Public Domain
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© Public Domain
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©Commons.wikimedia.org
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First trip
Testing of the cruiser continued at the beginning of 1903, and a lot of time was still needed to bring the Aurora to fruition, but it was not there. The aggravated situation in the Far East required the immediate strengthening of the Pacific squadron, for which a special detachment of ships was formed in the Baltic. The Navy Ministry intended to include the Aurora in this detachment, for which it was ordered to complete the tests as soon as possible.
On June 16, 1903, the Aurora officially became part of the Russian Imperial Navy and was almost immediately included in the rear admiral's detachment Virenius, focusing on the Mediterranean Sea for the fastest route to Port Arthur.
September 25, 1903 "Aurora" under the command of captain 1st rank Sukhotin left the Great Kronstadt roadstead, going to join Virenius’ detachment.
The cruiser Aurora during trials on June 14, 1903. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
During this campaign, the Aurora encountered a lot of technical malfunctions, including further problems with the vehicles, which caused extreme dissatisfaction among the command. While in Suez, the crew was forced to fix problems with the steering gear. In Djibouti, on January 31, 1904, the Aurora received the news of the outbreak of war with Japan, and on February 2, the highest order to return to Russia.
The Aurora reached the Russian military base in Libau on April 5, 1904, where its first campaign ended.
The Aurora's ship's chaplain died from "friendly fire"
The military situation for Russia was developing unfavorably, and the Russian command decided to form the Second Pacific Squadron, which was to pass through three oceans and change the situation in the naval theater of military operations.
At Aurora, work was carried out to eliminate technical deficiencies and strengthen weapons. Captain 1st Rank became the new commander of the Aurora Evgeny Egoriev.
On October 2, 1904, the Second Pacific Squadron, in four separate echelons, left Libau to proceed to the Far East. "Aurora" led the third echelon of ships consisting of the destroyers "Bezuprechny" and "Bodriy", the icebreaker "Ermak", the transports "Anadyr", "Kamchatka" and "Malaya". On October 7, the Russian ships were divided into small detachments. "Aurora" ended up in the 4th detachment under the command of Rear Admiral Oscar Enquist and was supposed to move together with the cruiser “Dmitry Donskoy” and the transport “Kamchatka”.The tension that reigned on Russian ships led to the fact that in the North Sea, off the coast of Great Britain, the Russian squadron mistook fishing ships for enemy destroyers. In the ensuing chaos, Russian sailors fired not only at the fishermen, but also at each other.
As a result of such “friendly fire,” the Aurora was damaged, and the ship’s chaplain father Anastasy was mortally wounded.
Record holders for loading coal
The further hike was quite calm. The team on the Aurora was united, which was greatly facilitated by its commander.
Senior ship's officer doctor Kravchenko wrote in his diary: “The first impression of the Aurora is the most favorable. The crew is cheerful, vigorous, looks straight into the eyes, and not from under their brows, does not walk on the deck, but flies straight, carrying out orders. It's good to see all this. At first I was struck by the abundance of coal. There is a lot of it on the upper deck, and even more in the battery deck; three quarters of the wardroom are littered with it. The stuffiness is therefore unbearable, but the officers do not even think of losing heart and not only do not complain about the inconvenience, but, on the contrary, proudly informs me that until now their cruiser has been the first in loading, received the first bonuses and is generally in very good standing with the admiral.”
Leisure on the Aurora was provided by an amateur theater troupe of sailors and officers, whose performances were highly valued by sailors from other ships.
The Aurora crew was also very strong in the matter of loading coal. So, on November 3, 1300 tons of coal were loaded onto the Aurora in unbearable heat at a rate of 71 tons per hour, which was the best result in the entire squadron. And in the last days of December 1904, with a new fuel load, the Aurora sailors broke their own record, showing a result of 84.8 tons of coal per hour.
If the mood of the crew and its preparation did not cause alarm in Captain Yegoriev, then the same could not be said about the ship itself. The infirmary and operating room were so poorly constructed that they were completely unusable in the tropics. It was necessary to adapt new premises and arrange possible protection for them from artillery fire. All provisions were concentrated in almost one place, and therefore, if this part of the ship were flooded, 600 people would be left without food. Much of this kind had to be corrected. On the upper deck, it was necessary to construct protection from the masts from wooden fragments from spare Bullivin anti-mine nets and traverses from the same nets with sailor's bunks to protect the servants of the guns. The internal wooden shields of the sides were broken and removed, which could produce a lot of fragments,” wrote the commander of the Aurora in March 1905, when the meeting with the enemy was already approaching.
The captain of the Aurora was one of the first to die
On May 1, 1905, the Second Pacific Squadron, after some reorganization and brief preparations, left the shores of Annam and headed for Vladivostok. "Aurora" took its place on the right outer side of the column of transports in the wake of the cruiser "Oleg". On May 10, in complete calm, the last coal loading took place; coal was accepted with the expectation of having a reserve at the entrance to the Korean Strait, which should have been enough to reach Vladivostok. Soon after the separation of the transports, the cruisers Oleg, Aurora, Dmitry Donskoy and Vladimir Monomakh, together with the third armored detachment, formed the left wake column.
On the night of May 14, 1905, the Russian squadron entered the Korean Strait, where Japanese ships were already waiting for it.
For the Aurora, the Battle of Tsushima began with a firefight with Japanese ships at 11:14. At the beginning of the battle, the Aurora supported the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh with fire, which was exchanging fire with the Japanese reconnaissance cruiser Izumi, forcing the latter to retreat.
With the appearance of the third and fourth Japanese detachments, which launched an attack on Russian transports, the Aurora, which was covering the transport ships, found itself under heavy enemy fire. The cruiser received the first damage.
But it was really hard for the crew of the Aurora around three o’clock in the afternoon, when the Japanese ships managed to come within close range and put the Russian cruisers under crossfire. The damage followed one after another; as a result of one of the hits, a fire started dangerously close to the bomb magazine, fraught with an explosion of ammunition. It was only thanks to the dedication of the Aurora sailors that the disaster was averted.
At 15:12, a 75-mm shell hit the front bridge ladder. Its fragments and debris from the ladder fell through the viewing slot into the wheelhouse and, reflected from its dome, scattered in different directions, injuring everyone in the wheelhouse. The commander of the Aurora, captain 1st rank Evgeny Romanovich Egoriev, received a fatal wound to the head and died soon after. One of the senior officers took command of the ship.
The crew did not drop the honor of the flag
Twenty minutes later, the Aurora barely dodged an enemy torpedo. The hit by a 203-mm Japanese shell caused holes, which resulted in the flooding of the bow torpedo tube compartment.
Despite the losses and damage, the Aurora continued to fight. The ship's flag was knocked down by shrapnel six times, but Russian sailors put it back in place.
At about half past four in the evening, the Russian cruisers found themselves covered from Japanese fire by a column of Russian battleships, which gave the Aurora crew time to catch their breath.
The artillery battle finally ended around seven in the evening. The defeat of the Russian squadron was obvious. The surviving ships did not maintain their overall formation and control; the remaining part of the squadron left the battlefield, literally in all directions.
By the evening of May 14, its commander Evgeny Yegoriev, as well as nine sailors, died on the Aurora. Five more sailors died from their wounds. 8 officers and 74 lower ranks were injured.
By ten in the evening, Admiral Enquist’s cruising detachment consisted of three ships - in addition to the Aurora, they were Oleg and Zhemchug. In the dark, Japanese destroyers tried to attack Russian ships, and Aurora had to evade Japanese torpedoes more than ten times during the night of May 14-15.
Admiral Enquist He tried several times to turn the cruisers towards Vladivostok, but the Japanese blocked the way, and the naval commander no longer believed in the possibility of a breakthrough.
The dead were buried at sea
As a result, the cruisers headed southwest, leaving the Korean Strait and breaking away from the enemy destroyers.
The night was hot for the Aurora doctors: those who, in the heat of battle, did not pay attention to their wounds, flocked to the infirmary. Those remaining in the ranks were engaged in minor repairs, awaiting new attacks by the Japanese.
During the Battle of Tsushima, the Aurora fired 303 152 mm, 1282 75 mm and 320 37 mm shells at the enemy.
At noon on May 15, Admiral Enquist and his headquarters moved to the Aurora, taking command of the cruiser that had lost its commander. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the sailors who died and died from wounds were buried at sea; Captain Yegoryev's body was going to be buried on the shore.
Two hours later, a military squadron was spotted from the Aurora, which was initially mistaken for Japanese, but the ships turned out to be American - the Philippine port of Manila was under US control. On the same day, the Aurora and other Russian ships dropped anchor in the port of Manila.
Damage to the Aurora received in the Battle of Tsushima. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Hostages of Manila
The United States officially took a neutral position in the Russo-Japanese War, but secretly expressed support for Japan. Therefore, on May 24, the American Admiral Tran received a directive from Washington - Russian ships must either disarm or leave the port within 24 hours.
Admiral Enquist requested St. Petersburg and received the following response: “In view of the need to repair the damage, I authorize you to give an undertaking to the American government not to participate in hostilities. Nikolai."In this situation, this decision was the only correct one - the damaged Russian ships could no longer change the situation that arose after the defeat at Tsushima. The war was coming to a disappointing conclusion for Russia, and it was already pointless to demand new sacrifices from the sailors.
On May 26, 1905, the Aurora crew gave the American administration a signature not to participate in further hostilities, and the gun locks were removed from the cruiser and handed over to the American arsenal. The war for the crews of Russian ships is over.
40 wounded from the Aurora were sent to an American hospital. A few days later, hired local workers began repairing the cruiser.
Return
The longer the forced stay in Manila continued, the more discipline on the Aurora fell. News of revolutionary unrest in Russia caused unrest among the lower ranks, which the officers, with difficulty, managed to calm down.
Repairs to the Aurora were completed in August 1905, shortly before the peace treaty between Russia and Japan was signed in Portsmouth. Russian ships began preparing to return home. A captain of the 2nd rank was appointed as the new commander of the Aurora. Barsch.
On October 10, 1905, after the final approval of the Russian-Japanese treaty by the parties, official Washington lifted all restrictions on the actions of Russian ships.On the morning of October 15, the Aurora, as part of a detachment of ships that were ordered to return to the Baltic, headed for Russia.
The return journey was also long. The Aurora celebrated New Year 1906 in the Red Sea, where it received orders to proceed to Russia on its own. At the same time, 83 sailors from the cruiser "Oleg" who were subject to demobilization came on board. After this, the Aurora turned into a real “demobilization cruiser” - from the crew of the Aurora itself, about 300 lower ranks had to be demobilized upon returning to Russia.
At the beginning of February 1906, while staying in Cherbourg, France, an incident occurred that prophetically indicated the future glory of the Aurora as a ship of the revolution. The French police received information that the ship's crew had purchased a batch of revolvers for revolutionaries in Russia. The search on the Aurora, however, did not yield any results, and the cruiser continued its journey home.
On February 19, 1906, the Aurora dropped anchor in the port of Libau, completing the longest military campaign in its history, which lasted 458 days.
On March 10, 1906, after the dismissal of all sailors subject to demobilization, just over 150 people remained in the cruiser’s crew. Aurora was transferred to the fleet reserve.
There were 11 and a half years left before the main shot of the cruiser...
Aurora shot! Aurora gasped!
An eagle fell under the boots...
For the cause of Lenin! For the will of Trotsky!
We will win throughout the entire Earth...
folk revolutionary song
D
To understand what the cruiser Aurora dreams about"
I propose to remember her long and glorious military and life path...
History of "Aurora"
The armored cruiser "Aurora" was laid down on May 23, 1897 in St. Petersburg (in the New Admiralty). The ship is of the same type as the previously laid down "Pallada" and "Diana".
In the Russian fleet there was (and still is) a tradition of continuity of ship names, and new cruisers inherited the names of sailing frigates. Construction of the ship took more than six years - the Aurora was launched on May 11, 1900 at 11:15 a.m., and the cruiser entered the fleet (after completion of all outfitting work) only on July 16, 1903.
The main purpose is to conduct reconnaissance, destroy enemy merchant ships, cover battleships from attacks by enemy destroyers, and patrol service. The ship could not conduct artillery duels with modern battleships of that time. It did not have armor or sufficient firepower. But 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 reach from Port Arthur to Vladivostok and return without additional bunkering.
On September 25, 1903 (just a week after manning, which ended on September 18), the Aurora with a crew of 559 people under the command of Captain 1st Rank I.V. Sukhotin left Kronstadt.
In the Mediterranean Sea, Aurora joined the detachment of Rear Admiral A. A. Virenius. The war began and on April 5, 1904, the Aurora returned to Kronstadt, where it was included in the 2nd Pacific Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Rozhestvensky, which was preparing for a campaign in the Far Eastern theater of operations.
Admiral Rozhdestvensky was an original and (perhaps for conspiracy purposes) gave nicknames to warships, with salty naval humor. The cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov" was called "Idiot", the battleship "Sisoy the Great" - "Invalid Shelter", the yacht "Svetlana" was called "Maid", and "Aurora" was awarded the "honorary" title "Prostitute under the fence"))))
On October 2, 1904, as part of the squadron, having replaced the commander (he became captain 1st rank E.R. Egoriev (“Aurora” went to Tsushima.
in the Battle of Tsushima, the Aurora fired 303 152 mm, 1282 75 mm and 320 37 mm shells at the enemy.
During the battle, the cruiser received 18 hits from shells of various calibers and suffered serious crew losses - up to a hundred people killed and wounded.
The commander died - his photograph is now on display in the cruiser's museum, framed by a steel plating sheet pierced by shrapnel from a Japanese shell and charred deck planks.
But despite all this, the ship managed to escape from the encirclement and go to Manila, where it remained disarmed until the end of the war.
In 1909-1910, "Aurora", together with "Diana" and "Bogatyr", was part of a detachment of overseas sailing, specially intended for midshipmen of the Naval Corps and the Naval Engineering School, as well as students of the Training Team of Combat Non-Commissioned Officers, to undergo practice.
In November 1911, Aurors took part in celebrations in Bangkok in honor of the coronation of the Siamese king.
In 1910, the cruiser accompanied the imperial yacht to Riga.
The cruiser underwent its first modernization after the Russo-Japanese War, and the second, after which it took on its current appearance, in 1915. The ship's artillery armament was strengthened - the number of 152-mm main caliber guns was first increased to ten, and then to fourteen. Numerous 75-mm artillery was dismantled - the size and survivability of the 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 new product was installed on the Aurora - anti-aircraft guns. But the glorious cruiser might not have lived to see the second modernization...
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 cruisers went out on patrol in pairs, and after the patrol period expired, one pair replaced the other.
On October 11, 1914, at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, the German submarine U-26, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander von Berkheim, discovered two Russian cruisers: the Pallada, which was finishing its patrol service, and the Aurora, which had come to replace it. The commander of the German submarine correctly assessed and classified the targets and attacked. The torpedo hit caused the detonation of the ammunition magazines on the battleship Pallada, and the cruiser sank along with the entire crew. And the veteran of the Russian-Japanese War, the cruiser "Aurora" managed to quietly hide in the skerries.
There is no point in seriously talking about the fateful role of the Aurora in the events of October 1917. The cruiser could not shoot the Winter Palace from guns. It was under repair, and all ammunition had been unloaded from it. But perhaps the Bolsheviks found a couple of shells for the salvo and effect.
The Aurora did not take part in the civil war or battles with the English fleet. There was an acute shortage of fuel and other supplies.
In 1918, the Aurora was in deep reserve, without the guns that were used to arm homemade light gunboats.
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 - it was decided to restore it as a training ship. The cruiser was repaired, ten 130-mm guns were installed on it instead of the previous 6-inch ones, two anti-aircraft guns and four machine guns, and on July 18, 1923 the ship began sea trials.
Then, for ten years - from 1923 to 1933 - the cruiser was engaged in a task that was already familiar to him: cadets of naval schools were practicing on board.
The ship made several overseas voyages and took part in the maneuvers of the newly revived Baltic Fleet. But the years took their toll, and due to the poor condition of the boilers and mechanisms, the Aurora, after another repair in 1933-1935, became a non-propelled training base. In winter, it was used as a floating base for submarines.
During the Great Patriotic War, the old cruiser stood in the harbor of Oranienbaum.
The ship’s guns were once again removed, and nine of its “one hundred and thirty” mounted on a coastal battery defended the approaches to the city.
The Germans did not pay much attention to the decrepit veteran, seeking first to disable the best Soviet ships (such as the cruiser Kirov), but the ship still received its share of enemy shells. On September 30, 1941, the half-sunken cruiser, damaged as a result of artillery shelling, sat on the ground.
After the blockade of Leningrad was lifted in July 1944, the cruiser was brought out of the state of clinical death - raised from the ground and (for the umpteenth time!) put in for repairs. The boilers and onboard engines, propellers, brackets for the side shafts and the shafts themselves, as well as some of the auxiliary mechanisms, were removed from the Aurora. The weapons that were on the ship in 1915 were installed - fourteen 152-mm Kane guns and four 45-mm salute guns.
In 1946, during repairs, the Aurora played the role of the king of the cruiser Varyag in the film of the same name. Then the Aurora, like a true actress, even had to put on makeup for her character - the shields were removed from the guns (there were none on the Varyag), and a fourth false pipe was installed to ensure the truthfulness of the image of the most heroic cruiser of the Russian-Japanese War.
Now the cruiser was to become a monument ship and at the same time a training base for the Nakhimov School. In 1948, the repairs were completed, and the restored Aurora stood where it stands to this day - on the Petrogradskaya embankment opposite the building of the Nakhimov School. And in 1956, a Ship Museum was opened on board the Aurora as a branch of the Central Naval Museum.
In the Soviet years, naturally, the main (and, perhaps, the only) attention was paid to the revolutionary past of the cruiser. Images of the Aurora were present everywhere possible, and the silhouette of the three-pipe ship became a symbol of our city.
In 1967, the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was widely celebrated in the Soviet Union. For the anniversary, they filmed the film "The Aurora Salvo", where the cruiser played itself. All filming was done on location. The Aurora was towed to a historical site near the Nikolaevsky Bridge. The spectacle was impressive, and thousands of Leningraders and city guests watched how the gray three-pipe the beauty slowly and majestically floats along the Neva.
Towing to the parking lot after filming in 1967.
A major restoration of the Aurora took place in 1984. Powerful tugs removed the cruiser from its eternal mooring and dragged it to the Northern Shipyard.
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.
What was above the water also underwent severe alteration. By the anniversary date, the Aurora returned to its usual place, and then the question arose of what to do with the skeleton remaining at the shipyard. Selling the cruiser of the revolution for scrap metal in Soviet times would have been considered ideological sabotage. So they decided to hide the real “Aurora” from the eyes of the people.
During the dissolution, the Aurora was slowly stolen away for souvenirs by both military and civilians. The sheathing of copper sheets, which covered the entire ship, was torn off from the surface parts. The chief mechanic of the Baltika fishing state farm, Vladimir Yurchenko, as a deeply religious economic man, tore off all the tiles from the shower of the heroic ship and placed it in the country. And that’s true, don’t let the good go to waste. Many took away the doors along with the jambs and removed the portholes.
According to eyewitnesses, the workers who plundered the cruiser and restored it came across a completely functional fire extinguishing system. It worked when they began to open the bulkheads using a welding machine. Half the ship was filled with foam.
They wanted to turn the cut-off hull into a breakwater, but it didn’t work out. Corpse The severed part sank not where it was planned. Nowadays you can find the remains of the cruiser of the revolution without any problems.
Random tourists willingly take pictures against the backdrop of the wreckage; in the summer, local boys excitedly climb on the wreckage. At low tide, the hull, which stretches 120 meters in length, is visible in its entirety.
And the reborn cruiser Frankinstein "Aurora" was solemnly returned to eternal berth.
The modern cruiser is a partial remake. One of the most noticeable differences from the original is the use of welded seams on the new body instead of rivet technology.
The St. Andrew's flag was again raised on the ship in 1992, the cruiser was listed in the Russian Navy as No. 1. Until recently, officers and sailors served on the ship. All auxiliary mechanisms and life support systems are maintained by the cruiser's crew in working condition. The ship's guns are also in working, well-maintained condition.
On the night of June 6, 2009, a banquet and a ceremonial presentation of the Russian Pioneer magazine were held on the ship, which were attended by distinguished guests. The prosecutor's office became interested in the case and the Minister of Defense and the Navy turned out to be the last ones, as if they had seen enough)))
On December 1, 2010, the Aurora lost its status as ship No. 1 of the Russian Navy. The ship became a branch of the Central Navy Museum.
On August 1, the Aurora was finally transferred to the jurisdiction of the Central Naval Museum. The military unit serving on the ship was disbanded. The crew of the cruiser Aurora was reorganized into a staff of three military personnel and 28 civilian personnel; the ship's status remained the same.
In October 2011, a flag with a skull and crossbones was hung on the mast of the cruiser Aurora. Two young men and a girl sat on the mast under the Jolly Roger for about five hours, alarming the police, rescuers, the city commandant’s office and military sailors.
The troublemakers identified themselves as representatives of the organizations “People's Share” and “Food Not Bombs.” They dedicated the action “Memorable October or Auror Resurrection” to the fight against the crisis, poverty, oligarchs, “endemic pedophilia” and “religious extremism.”
A conventional shot from the head gun of the cruiser "Aurora" at the house of People's Artist Mikhail Boyarsky was reported to herald the beginning of the Russian October Political Postmodernization (ROPP).
The slogans were beautiful and revolutionary.
Freedom from tyrants for Russia! The people - a share of oil and gas! Food is a right, not a privilege! Our cause is just - we are not piss!
The activists were removed from the masts without casualties (for the activists). Their further fate is humane and disappointing (that was before the pussies).
Now the crew is officially recruited from former military sailors. But besides them, there are also conscript sailors on Aurora. They are assigned to the ship and continue to serve as crew as before. It turns out that the status of the cruiser has not been finally sorted out.
Now "Aurora" has again left its place near the Nakhimov School.
The first stage of repairs will take place at the shipyard in Kronstadt, after which the cruiser will be moved to another location. It is expected that by the end of the year the legendary ship will be returned to its permanent mooring.
Historical photos and information (C) various places on the Internet.
Aurora is a 1st rank cruiser of the Baltic Fleet, known for its role in the October Revolution of 1917. Aurora heralded the onset of a new era in the history of Russia with her salvo. But what is the actual history of the cruiser Aurora? There are many little-known facts about Aurora, which will be discussed below.
The construction of the ship lasted more than 6 years - the Aurora was launched on May 11, 1900 at 11:15 a.m., and the cruiser entered the fleet (after completion of all outfitting work) only on July 16, 1903. 
This ship was by no means unique in its combat qualities. The cruiser could not boast of any special speed (only 19 knots - squadron battleships of that time reached a speed of 18 knots), or weapons (8 six-inch main caliber guns - far from amazing firepower). Ships such as armored cruisers ("Bogatyr") were much faster and one and a half times more powerful. And the attitude of the officers and crews towards these “domestic-made goddesses” was not very good - the Diana-class cruisers had a lot of shortcomings and constantly broke down 
Nevertheless, these cruisers were fully adequate for their tasks—conducting reconnaissance, destroying enemy merchant ships, covering battleships from attacks by enemy destroyers, patrol service—with a solid (about seven thousand tons) displacement and good seaworthiness. With a full supply of coal (1430 tons), the Aurora could reach from Port Arthur to Vladivostok and return back. 
All cruisers were intended for the Pacific Ocean, where a military conflict with Japan was brewing, and the first two of the ships were already in the Far East. On September 25, 1903, the Aurora with a crew of 559 people under the command of Captain 1st Rank I.V. Sukhotin left Kronstadt. In the Mediterranean Sea, the Aurora joined the detachment of Rear Admiral A. A. Virenius, which consisted of the squadron battleship Oslyabya, the cruiser Dmitry Donskoy and several destroyers and auxiliary ships. However, the detachment was late for the Far East - in the African port of Djibouti, on Russian ships they learned about the Japanese night attack on the Port Arthur squadron and about the beginning of the war. It was risky to continue further, since the Japanese fleet blocked Port Arthur, and there was a high probability of meeting with superior enemy forces on the way to it. A proposal was made to send a detachment of Vladivostok cruisers to the Singapore area to meet Virenius and go with them to Vladivostok, and not to Port Arthur, but this quite reasonable proposal was not accepted. 
On April 5, 1904, the Aurora returned to Kronstadt, where it was included in the 2nd Pacific Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Rozhestvensky, which was preparing to march to the Far Eastern theater of operations. Here, six of the eight main caliber guns were covered with armor shields - the experience of the battles of the Arthur squadron showed that fragments of high-explosive Japanese shells literally mowed down unprotected personnel. In addition, the commander of the cruiser was changed - he became captain 1st rank E.R. Egoriev. On October 2, 1904, as part of the Aurora squadron, it set off for the second time - to Tsushima. 
Admiral Rozhdestvensky was a rather unconventional personality. Among the many “quirks” of the admiral was the following - he had the habit of giving the warships entrusted to him nicknames that were very far from examples of fine literature. Thus, the cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov" was called "Idiot", the battleship "Sisoy the Great" - "Invalid Shelter", and so on. The squadron included two ships with female names - the former yacht "Svetlana" and "Aurora". The commander called the first cruiser “Maid”, and “Aurora” was awarded the title “Fence Prostitute”. If Rozhdestvensky knew what kind of ship he calls that... 
"Aurora" was part of the detachment of cruisers of Rear Admiral Enquist and during the Battle of Tsushima conscientiously carried out Rozhdestvensky's order - it covered the transports. This task was clearly beyond the capabilities of four Russian cruisers, against which first eight and then sixteen Japanese cruisers acted. They were saved from heroic death only by the fact that a column of Russian battleships accidentally approached them and drove away the advancing enemy. The cruiser did not distinguish itself in anything special in the battle - the author of the damage attributed to the Aurora by Soviet sources, which the Japanese cruiser Izumi received, was in fact the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh. 
At the beginning of the Battle of Tsushima on May 14, Aurora followed second the flagship cruiser of the Oleg detachment, covering the convoy of transports from the east. At 14:30, as part of his detachment, together with a reconnaissance detachment (2 cruisers, 1 auxiliary cruiser), he entered into battle with the 3rd (4 cruisers, Vice Admiral S. Deva) and 4th (4 cruisers, Rear Admiral S. . Uriu) by Japanese combat detachments, and at 15:20 also with the 6th Japanese combat detachment (4 cruisers, Rear Admiral K. Togo). At about 16:00, the ship came under fire from two armored cruisers of the 1st Japanese combat detachment, received serious damage and additionally entered into battle with the 5th Japanese combat detachment (3 cruisers, 1 coastal defense battleship, Vice Admiral S. Kataoka). At about 16:30, together with the detachment, he went under the protection of the non-firing side of the Russian battleships, but at 17:30-18:00 he took part in the last phase of the cruising battle. 
In this battle, the ship received about 10 hits from shells of 8 to 3 inches in caliber, the crew lost 15 people killed and 83 wounded. The ship's commander, Captain 1st Rank E.R. Egoryev, died - he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment that hit the conning tower (he was buried at sea at 15°00"N, 119°15"E). (The commander’s son also took part in the Russo-Japanese War, serving on the Vladivostok cruiser squadron (on the cruiser Rossiya), becoming a rear admiral in Soviet times and teaching naval history at the Leningrad Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics - LITMO.) 
After the death of the captain, senior officer Captain 2nd Rank A.K. Nebolsin, also wounded, took command of the Aurora. Cruiser Aurora received 37 holes, but did not fail. The chimneys were seriously damaged, the bow mine compartment and several coal pits of the forward stoker were flooded. Several fires were extinguished on the cruiser. All rangefinder stations, four 75 mm and one 6 mm guns were out of action. 
On the night of May 14/15, following the detachment's flagship, he forced the speed to 18 knots, broke away from enemy pursuit in the dark and turned south. After several attempts to turn north, repelling torpedo attacks by Japanese destroyers, two ships of O. A. Enquist’s detachment - “Oleg” and “Aurora” - with the cruiser “Pearl” joining them, arrived on May 21 in the neutral port of Manila (Philippines, US protectorate ), where they were interned on May 27, 1905 by American authorities until the end of the war. The team was forced to sign an undertaking not to participate in further hostilities. To treat the sick and wounded, both during the transition to the Far East and during and after the battle, an X-ray machine was used on the ship - this was the first use of fluoroscopy in shipboard conditions in world practice. 
In 1906, the Aurora returned to the Baltic, becoming a training ship for the Naval Corps. The body and mechanisms underwent a major overhaul in St. Petersburg in 1906-1908. with the dismantling of torpedo tubes, the installation of an additional two 6-mm guns instead of four 75-mm guns, and the installation of rails for laying mine barriers. On October 10, 1907, she was reclassified from rank I cruisers to cruisers. 
From the autumn of 1909 to the spring of 1910, “Aurora” made a long voyage with a “midshipman detachment” in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Visited the ports of Vigo, Algiers, Bizerte, Toulon, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Smyrna, Naples, Messina, Souda, Piraeus, Poros, Gibraltar, Vigo, Cherbourg, Kiel. During this voyage, as part of Mankovsky’s detachment (4 cruisers), he was in the ports of Greece due to the threat of a military mutiny there. From the autumn of 1910 to the spring of 1911, the ship was on a second long training voyage along the route Libau - Christiansand - Vigo - Bizerte - Piraeus and Poros - Messina - Malaga - Vigo - Cherbourg - Libau. Since 1911, he was a member of the 1st reserve cruiser brigade. From the autumn of 1911 to the summer of 1912, the Aurora went on its third long training voyage to participate in the celebrations of the coronation of the King of Siam (November 16 - December 2, 1911), and visited ports of the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the spring and summer of 1912, the cruiser was part of the international squadron of the “patron powers” of Crete and stood as a Russian stationary in Suda Bay. 
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 a Central Mine and Artillery Position was set up. The cruiser was entrusted with the task of carrying out patrol duty at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland in order to promptly notify of the appearance of German dreadnoughts. The cruisers went out on patrol in pairs, and after the patrol period expired, one pair replaced the other. The Russian ships achieved their first success on August 26, when the German light cruiser Magdeburg landed on rocks near the island of Odensholm. The cruisers "Pallada" (the older sister of the "Aurora" died in Port Arthur, and this new "Pallada" was built after the Russo-Japanese War) and the "Bogatyr" arrived in time and tried to capture the helpless enemy ship. Although the Germans managed to blow up their cruiser, at the scene of the accident Russian divers found secret German codes, which served both the Russians and the British well during the war. 
But a new danger awaited the Russian ships: in October, German submarines began operating in the Baltic Sea. Anti-submarine defense in the fleets of the whole world was then in its infancy - no one knew how and with what it was possible to hit the invisible enemy hiding under water, and how to avoid its surprise attacks. There were no traces of diving shells, much less depth charges or sonars. Surface ships could only rely on the good old ramming - after all, one should not take seriously the anecdotal instructions that were developed, which instructed to cover spotted periscopes with bags and roll them up with sledgehammers. On October 11, 1914, at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, the German submarine U-26, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander von Berkheim, discovered two Russian cruisers: the Pallada, which was finishing its patrol service, and the Aurora, which had come to replace it. The commander of the German submarine, with German pedantry and scrupulousness, assessed and classified the targets - in all respects, the new armored cruiser was a much more tempting prey than a veteran of the Russian-Japanese War. The torpedo hit caused the detonation of the ammunition magazines on the Pallada, and the cruiser sank along with the entire crew - only a few sailor caps remained on the waves... The Aurora turned around and took refuge in the skerries. And again, one should not accuse the Russian sailors of cowardice - as already mentioned, they did not yet know how to fight submarines, and the Russian command already knew about the tragedy that had happened ten days earlier in the North Sea, where a German boat sank three English armored cruisers at once. "Aurora" escaped destruction for the second time - fate was clearly protecting the cruiser 
There is no need to dwell too much on the role of the Aurora in the events of October 1917 in Petrograd - more than enough has been said about this. Let us only note that the threat to shoot the Winter Palace from the cruiser’s guns was pure bluff. The cruiser was undergoing repairs, and therefore all the ammunition was unloaded from it in full accordance with the current instructions. And the stamp “Aurora salvo” is purely grammatically incorrect, since a “volley” is simultaneously fired shots from at least two barrels. Hence the conclusion follows that the legends about the Aurora as a symbol of the revolution are a myth. 
In 1918, the Aurora was laid up, and from the spring of 1919 it was mothballed. In September 1922, a special commission examined the ship and concluded: “The external condition of the ship and the nature of its long-term storage make it possible, after relatively simple repair work, to make the ship ready for use as a training ship.” In 1940-1945, the Aurora was stationed in Oranienbaum. In 1948, the cruiser was placed at the “eternal mooring” at the quay wall of the Bolshaya Nevka, where it is currently located museum ship. However, the modern cruiser is only a replica, since during the last reconstruction in 1984, more than 50% of the hull and superstructures were replaced. One of the most noticeable differences from the original is the use of welded seams on the new body instead of rivet technology. The ship itself was towed to a naval base in the coastal strip of the Gulf of Finland near the village of Ruchi, where it was cut into pieces and scuttled. Parts of the ship sticking out of the water were stolen by village residents for building materials and scrap metal in the late 80s.
The ship has long become a symbol of the revolution, and not everyone now knows that behind its stern there are tens of thousands of miles of ocean voyages, participation in three wars, as well as many thousands of officers trained for the fleet.
The Aurora was laid down at the St. Petersburg shipyard “New Admiralty” in May 1897, and launched on May 11, 1900. The cruiser received its name in honor of the sailing 44-gun frigate "Aurora", which became famous in battles in the Far East during the war of 1853-56. The cruiser entered service as warships of the Russian fleet in July 1903. It was a standard ship; in parallel with it, two more cruisers of the same project were built - Diana and Pallada.
With respectable dimensions (length 126.7 meters and width 16.8 meters), the Aurora had weak armor - the ship belonged to the category of armored cruisers of the 1st rank. Initially, even some of the artillery pieces did not have armored shields. The cruiser had good armament, it was equipped with: 152 mm guns - 8, 75 mm - 24, 37 mm - 8, 63.5 mm - 2, as well as three torpedo tubes. Subsequently, the number and caliber of guns changed several times; anti-aircraft guns, machine guns and a device for laying minefields appeared.
With such a solid armament, the cruiser had a low speed: a maximum speed of just over 19 knots, an economic speed of only 11 knots (for comparison, it had 24 and 16 knots) and a short autonomous cruising range (2500 miles at economic speed and 1320 miles at maximum), which significantly reduced the possibility of its combat use. "Aurora" was intended for independent operations at a short distance from their bases, as well as to support battleships in battle when operating as part of a squadron.
The cruiser set out on her first voyage on September 25, 1903; it was assumed that she would go for reinforcement. But in connection with the outbreak of war with Japan, the cruiser Aurora, which joined the detachment of ships of Rear Admiral A. A. Virenius in the Mediterranean Sea, was returned to the Baltic.
The cruiser Aurora set off on a new voyage in August 1904 as part of the squadron of Vice Admiral Z.P. Rozhdestvensky, which was heading to the Pacific Ocean to participate in the Russo-Japanese War. The voyage began unsuccessfully for the cruiser. On October 10, it was mistakenly hit by several shells from other Russian ships that fired at English fishing vessels, mistaken for destroyers in the fog. On the cruiser, the ship's priest was killed and one sailor was wounded.
The cruiser Aurora received its baptism of fire in the Battle of Tsushima on May 14. During the battle, which lasted for the cruiser from 14:30 to 18:00, the Aurora received about 10 direct hits from shells. Fires repeatedly broke out on the cruiser, several compartments were flooded, five guns and all rangefinder stations were out of action. The ship's commander, Captain 1st Rank E.R. Egoryev, and 14 crew members were killed, and 83 people were injured. But the ship did not lose momentum and at night, together with the cruisers “Oleg” and “Pearl”, having fought off Japanese destroyers, was able to break away from the enemy’s pursuit. The cruisers were unable to make their way north towards Vladivostok, and were forced to leave for the neutral Philippine port of Manila, where they were interned by the Americans.
The cruiser Aurora returned to the Baltic in 1906. The ship underwent a major overhaul, after which it became a training ship on which cadets and midshipmen of the Naval Corps practiced. At that time, students of the cadet corps, who successfully completed a full course of science, received the rank of naval midshipmen and were sent on a long (up to a year or more) voyage on warships, after which they passed exams and received the first naval officer rank of “midshipman.”
Until the summer of 1912, the Aurora made several voyages with detachments of midshipmen of the Naval Corps of other fleet educational institutions, and for some time was a stationary ship in Souda Bay on Crete. During the First World War, the Aurora, as part of the 2nd Cruiser Brigade, fought in the Baltic, mainly performing reconnaissance and patrol functions, covering the laying of minefields and the operations of light ships. At this time, the ship's firepower was strengthened; instead of six 75 mm guns, 152 mm guns were installed, as well as five anti-aircraft guns.
At the end of 1916, the cruiser Aurora began repairs in Petrograd, where it took part in revolutionary events. The cruiser's crew was strongly influenced by the Bolsheviks, so during the preparation for the armed uprising on October 25, 1917, the ship was instructed to enter the Neva and take under protection the Nikolaevsky Bridge, connecting Vasilievsky Island with the central part of the city. It was from there that the famous Aurora shot was fired. According to a number of historians, the shot was fired much earlier than the assault on Winter Palace began. This no longer plays a fundamental role, since it was “Aurora” that became a symbol of the revolution.
Thanks to participation in those events, the Aurora retained its name, although most of the warships were renamed by the new government. During the Civil War, the Aurora's crew thinned out significantly. And in 1919 the ship was mothballed. The decision to return the ship to service was made in the fall of 1922. The cruiser "Aurora" again became a training ship, on which cadets of naval educational institutions underwent maritime practice until 1940.
The cruiser Aurora met the Great Patriotic War in the port of Oranienbaum (now the southwestern part of St. Petersburg). The cruiser itself was practically not involved, except for repelling enemy air raids. Only a small part of the crew remained on the ship; the rest of the sailors, having removed most of the guns from the cruiser, crushed the enemy on the outskirts of Leningrad.
During the three years of the blockade, the cruiser was repeatedly hit by bombs and shells. The ship had to be grounded because a large amount of water entered the holds through the holes. But even in such difficult conditions, the small crew of the Aurora did not stop fighting for the survivability of the ship. Already in the summer of 1944, the cruiser was raised from the ground and sent for repairs.
In 1948, the repaired cruiser Aurora was anchored off Petrogradskaya Embankment. Until 1956, it was used as a training ship for the Leningrad Nakhimov School, and then a museum was opened on it, which became a branch of the Central Naval Museum. In 1992, the St. Andrew's flag was raised again (75 years later!) on the cruiser Aurora.
The cruiser Aurora has been in service for 110 years. After it became a museum, the cruiser was visited by tens of millions of people to experience the living history of the glorious Russian navy. Naturally, less than 50 percent of the original Aurora, launched in May 1900, remains on the cruiser, but this does not detract from the historical value of the ship, which honorably carried St. Andrew’s flag through the legendary Battle of Tsushima. It’s not for nothing that they say that history comes to life on board the Aurora.
"Aurora"
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General information
The cruiser "Aurora", like other ships of its type ("Diana" and "Pallada"), was built according to the shipbuilding program of 1895 with the goal of " equations of our naval forces with the German and with the forces of secondary states adjacent to the Baltic" The Diana-class cruisers became one of the first armored cruisers in Russia, the development of which took into account, first of all, the experience of foreign countries. Nevertheless, for their time (in particular, during the Russo-Japanese War), ships of this type turned out to be ineffective due to the “backwardness” of many tactical and technical elements (speed, weapons, armor).
History of creation
Prerequisites for creation
By the beginning of the 20th century. Russia's foreign policy situation was quite complex: the persistence of contradictions with England, the growing threat from developing Germany, the strengthening of Japan's position. Taking these factors into account required strengthening the army and navy, that is, building new ships. Changes in the shipbuilding program adopted in 1895 assumed construction in the period from 1896 to 1905. 36 new ships, among them nine cruisers, of which two (then three) - “ carapace", that is, armored decks. Subsequently, these three armored cruisers became the Diana class.
Design
The basis for the development of tactical and technical elements (TTE) of future cruisers was the design of a cruiser with a displacement of 6000 tons created by S.K. Ratnik, the prototype of which was the newest (launched in 1895) English cruiser HMS Talbot and French armored cruiser D"Entrecasteaux(1896). At the beginning of June 1896, the planned series was expanded to three ships, the third of which (the future Aurora) was ordered to be laid down at the New Admiralty. On April 20, 1896, the Marine Technical Committee (MTK) approved the technical design of an armored cruiser of rank I.
Construction and testing
Silver mortgage board of the cruiser "Aurora"
On March 31, 1897, Emperor Nicholas II ordered that the cruiser under construction be named “Aurora” in honor of the Roman goddess of dawn. This name was chosen by the autocrat from eleven proposed names. L.L. Polenov, however, believes that the cruiser was named after the sailing frigate "Aurora", which became famous during the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky during the Crimean War.
Despite the fact that, in fact, work on the construction of the Aurora began much later than the Diana and Pallas, the official laying down of cruisers of this type took place on the same day: May 23, 1897. The first one at 10:30 a.m. . the solemn ceremony was held on the Aurora in the presence of Admiral General Alexei Alexandrovich. The silver mortgage plate was secured between the 60th and 61st frames, and the flag and jack of the future cruiser were raised on specially installed flagpoles.
The Diana-class cruisers were supposed to be the first serial cruisers in Russia, but it was not possible to achieve uniformity among them: the Aurora was equipped with different machines, boilers, and steering devices than the Diana and Pallada. Electric drives for the latter were ordered from three different factories as an experiment: this way it was possible to find out which drives would be the most effective, so that they could then be installed on other ships of the fleet. Thus, electric drives for Aurora steering gears were ordered from Siemens and Galke.
The slipway work began in the fall of 1897, and it dragged on for three and a half years (largely due to the unavailability of individual elements of the ship). Finally, on May 24, 1900, the hull was launched in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna. Following this, the installation of main vehicles, auxiliary mechanisms, general ship systems, weapons and other equipment began. In 1902, for the first time in the Russian fleet, the Aurora received Hall system anchors, a novelty that the other two ships of this type did not have time to equip. In the summer of 1900, the cruiser passed its first tests, the last on June 14, 1903.
Four builders participated in the direct construction of the cruiser (from the moment of construction until the end of the sea changes): E. R. de Grofe, K. M. Tokarevsky, N. I. Pushchin and A. A. Bazhenov.
The total cost of building the Aurora is estimated at 6.4 million rubles.
Description of design
Frame
Museum ship and cultural heritage site of the Russian Federation
"Aurora" - cruiser-museum in St. Petersburg
In mid-1944, it was decided to create the Leningrad Nakhimov Naval School. It was planned to place some of the Nakhimov crew on a floating base, which was temporarily to become the Aurora. However, according to the decision of A. A. Zhdanov, the cruiser “Aurora” was to be permanently installed on the Neva, “ as a monument to the active participation of sailors of the Baltic Fleet in the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government" Work immediately began to restore the waterproofness of the cruiser's hull, which had received numerous damage. During more than three years of overhaul (from mid-July 1945 to mid-November 1948), the following were repaired: the hull, propellers, onboard steam engines, onboard propeller shafts, onboard engine shaft brackets, the remaining boilers; Reconstruction was also carried out in connection with the new function of the mother ship. (Unfortunately, this reorganization had a negative impact on preserving the historical appearance of the cruiser. By the way, this was also influenced by the participation of “Aurora” in the role of “Varyag” in the film of the same name, filmed in 1947.) On November 17, 1948, the cruiser took its place for the first time permanently parked on Bolshaya Nevka. A graduating company of Nakhimots was immediately stationed on the Aurora. From that time until 1961, it became a tradition for Nakhimov graduates to live and serve on the Aurora.
Towing the cruiser "Aurora" to the Leningrad Shipyard named after A. A. Zhdanov for repairs. 1984
By Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 1327 of August 30, 1960, the Aurora was given the official status of a state-protected monument ship. Since 1961, free access to the museum, which existed on the ship since 1950 on the initiative of several officers, was opened, and its exhibition was expanded. Soon Aurora became one of the popular places in the city.
The final canonization of the Aurora, its transformation into a symbol ship, occurred in 1967, when, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 1917 revolution, the Aurora again fired a blank shot from its 152-mm tank gun at exactly 21:45. In February 1968, the cruiser was awarded the second most important order in the country - the Order of the October Revolution. Thus, the Aurora, having once become the first ship to bear the order, also became the first twice to bear the order in the history of the Soviet Navy.
The cruiser "Aurora" passes through the Palace Bridge in St. Petersburg, 2014
"Aurora" in the dock of the Kronstadt Marine Plant, November 2014.
By the end of the 1970s, the Aurora hull fell into disrepair. Repair and reconstruction was required. After developing proposals from a specially created commission, repairs began in August 1984 and continued until August 1987. Instead of a complete restoration, it was decided to replace the old building with a new one. The “restoration” of the “Aurora” (however, having the original drawings, the reconstructors were not able to bring much to their original state due to the numerous re-equipment of the cruiser before) cost about 35 million rubles.