Cruiser Aurora (2, Petrogradskaya Naberezhnaya)

One of St. Petersburg’s most famous historical monuments, the cruiser Aurora was built in April 1900 at the New Admiralty shipyard. It experienced its first combat action in 1905 during the Battle of Tsushima. After narrowly escaping destruction, the cruiser managed to break through to the Philippines, and in 1906, it returned to Kronstadt. The Aurora was in Petrograd just before the October Revolution, and in October 1917, the Provisional Government decided to withdraw it from the city. Despite this decision, however, the ship’s crew formed a committee headed by the Bolsheviks. They raised the red flag, and the Aurora remained in the city. On 25 October 1917, at 21:45, the cruiser’s bow gun fired a salvo that signalled the assault on the Winter Palace. The cruiser was sent to the naval dockyard in 1918, and all its guns were removed and transferred to the Volga Flotilla. New guns were soon installed on the ship, after which it was made part of a new squadron. On 17 November 1948, the cruiser Aurora was moored on the Bolshaya Nevka Embankment, at a quay wall, where it remains to this day. In 1965, a branch of the Central Naval Museum was opened on board the ship.