Aurora, cruiser

Categories / Army. Navy/Baltic Fleet
Categories / Science. Education/Museums
AURORA first rank cruiser was founded in 1897 at the New Admiralty dockyard, and became part of the Baltic Fleet in 1903. It weighed over 6,700 tons (in 1917 - 7.600 tons), and measured in with a length of 126,8 meters, width of 16,8 meters, submersion of 6,5 meters, speed of 20 knots (37,2 km/h); and an armament (as of 1903) of eight 152 mm guns, twenty-four 75 mm guns, two landing guns, and three torpedo launchers. The deck armour was 38-64 mm thick (the board was not armoured). The crew consisted of 570 people. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, the Aurora sailed to the Far East, participated in the Battle of Tsushima, and broke through to Manila, where it was interned. It returned to Kronstadt in 1906, and after repairs became a training ship. From August, 1914, it was part of the 2nd cruiser unit, and took part in fights on the Baltic Sea. The ship underwent major repairs at a French-Russian plant in Petrograd in 1916-17. By 1917, its armament consisted of fourteen 152 mm guns and two 150 mm machine guns. The occupation of the Winter Palace was signaled by a blank shot from the Aurora's prow 25 October (7 November) 1917. The Aurora underwent repair work at the Petrograd port in 1918-23, and, from 1923, was a training ship for the Baltic Fleet (with an armament of 130 mm guns). It served as the flag ship for a submarine unit in Oranienbaum from 1940. In July, 1941, the Aurora's guns were placed at Dudergofskie Pitches (the Aurora's battery cell). The cruiser underwent major repairs again in 1944-48, and its name and armament from 1917 were replaced. On 17 September 1948, the Aurora was settled into a permanent position at the Petrogradskaya Embankment in front of Nakhimov Navy School, being used as a training base in 1948-61. The ship became part of the Navy Museum from 1957. In 1984-87, the Aurora underwent restoration at the Zhdanov Ship-building Plant (today the North Dockyard), during which many original details and pieces were lost. A memorial plaque was installed in honour of the Aurora at a launching slipway and an outfitting wall at the Admiralty Association (today the Admiralty Dockyard), and at the North Dockyard plant; a memorial monument at the Angliiskaya Embankment (where the Aurora was stood in October 1917); and memorial signs along mooring walls on the Lomonosov and Petrogradskaya Embankment harbors. The ship's name was given to a publishing house, a monthly magazine, and a cinema house. Monuments and memorials, which are part of the Green Belt of Glory, were constructed along the Aurora's cells in the 1970-80s.

References: Буров В. Н., Юхнин В. Е. Крейсер "Аврора": Памятник истории отеч. кораблестроения. Л., 1987; Крейсер "Аврора": Путеводитель по корабельному музею / М. Н. Горбунов и др. Л., 1988; Поленов Л. Л. Сто лет в списках флота: Крейсер "Аврора". СПб., 2003.

A. N. Lukirsky. Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Angliiskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Petrogradskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Поленов Л. Л. Крейсер "Аврора". Л., 1987
Буров В. Н., Юхнин В. Е. Крейсер "Аврора": Памятник истории отеч. кораблестроения. Л., 1987
Крейсер "Аврора": Путеводитель по корабельному музею / М.Н. Горбунов и др. Л., 1988 Admiralty Dockyards
Baltic Fleet
Foil Rolling Plant
Winter Palace
Northern Shipyard Plant
The Green Belt of Glory
1900
1948
1987