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What ship did Nikolai launch? 2. Survivor of Tsushima

At 11:15 on May 24, 1900, in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna, who watched the ceremony from the Imperial Pavilion, the ceremonial launching of the Aurora took place. It inherited its name from the sailing frigate of the same name, because in those days there was such a tradition.

Under the volleys of artillery salutes from the ships stationed on the Neva, the cruiser safely landed on the water, “without kinks or leaks,” as K. M. Tokarevsky subsequently reported. “As the ship left the boathouse, flags were raised on it, and on the mainmast was the standard of His Majesty.” During the descent, a 78-year-old sailor who served on the frigate Aurora was part of the honor guard on the upper deck of the ship. In addition, a former officer of the famous sailing ship, and now Vice Admiral K.P. Pilkin, was present at the descent. The next day, the new cruiser was towed to the wall of the Franco-Russian plant for the installation of the main engines. The ship's displacement at the time of launch was 6,731 tons.

Cruiser history

Most people who lived under Soviet rule know the cruiser Aurora as a symbol of the socialist revolution. The cruiser became legendary after the thunder of its guns announced a coup in Russia and the Bolsheviks coming to power.

Nevertheless, these cruisers were fully consistent with their intended purpose - reconnaissance, destruction of enemy merchant ships, covering battleships from attacks by enemy destroyers, patrol service - 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.

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

In the Mediterranean Sea, the cruiser 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 considered too risky to proceed further, since the Japanese fleet was blockading 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 Arthur squadron’s battles 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.

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. The Aurora itself received about a dozen hits, had a number of damage and serious losses in people - 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 boards.

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

Aurora returned to the Baltic at the beginning of 1906, along with several other ships that survived the Japanese defeat. In 1909-1910, “Aurora”, together with “Diana” and “Bogatyr”, was part of a detachment of overseas sailing, specially designed for internship by midshipmen of the Naval Corps and the Naval Engineering School, as well as students of the Training Team of Combat Non-Commissioned Officers.

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

Cruiser Aurora in the First World War

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...

"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 under repair, 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.

The Aurora did not take part in the civil war or battles with the English fleet. An acute shortage of fuel and other supplies led to the fact that the Baltic Fleet was reduced to the size of a bunker - an “active detachment” - consisting of only a few combat units. The Aurora was put into reserve, and in the fall of 1918, some of the cruiser’s guns were removed for installation on homemade gunboats of river and lake flotillas.

At the end of 1922, “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.

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 the same symbol of the city on the Neva as the Peter and Paul Fortress or the Bronze Horseman. The role of the cruiser in the October Revolution was extolled in every possible way, and there was even a joke: “Which ship in history had the most powerful weapons?” - “Cruiser Aurora”! One shot - and the whole power collapsed!

On May 24, 1900, Emperor Nicholas II launched one of the most legendary ships of the Russian fleet, the cruiser Aurora, amid salutes of fireworks.

The order for Diana-class cruisers was caused by the foreign policy situation that emerged at the end of the 19th century. The aggravated contradictions with England, which were soon resolved diplomatically, were replaced by the ever-increasing “German threat” in the Baltic. A new round of the naval arms race against the backdrop of a tense political situation led in 1895 to another adjustment to Russia’s twenty-year shipbuilding program, adopted in 1881. As part of the additions made to the program, three “carapace cruisers” were ordered, which later became Diana-class cruisers.

On June 23, 1896, the head of the Main Directorate of Shipbuilding and Supply (GUKiS), Vice Admiral V.P. Verkhovsky ordered work to begin on the construction of a “cruiser with a displacement of 6,630 tons” at the New Admiralty. like "Diana". This name of the new ship was preserved in official documents for almost a year, until Nicholas II decided to name the cruiser.

Direct work on the formation of the ship's hull began at the plant in the New Admiralty in September - October 1896. However, by this time, all the materials necessary for construction were not available, since the Admiralty Izhora Plant was overloaded with orders and was unable to cope with the production of a number of key elements. In this regard, the plant administration began to insist on increasing the work time. As a result, part of the order, by order of the head of GUKiS, was placed at the Aleksandrovsky Iron Foundry. The nascent cruiser was named personally by Emperor Nicholas II in April 1897. He ordered that the cruiser under construction be named “Aurora” in honor of the Roman goddess of dawn.

At 11:15 on May 24, 1900, in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and both empresses, the ceremonial launching of the Aurora took place. Under the volleys of artillery salutes from the ships stationed on the Neva, the cruiser safely landed on the water. “As the ship left the boathouse, flags were raised on it, and on the mainmast the standard of His Majesty” was how the Neva magazine described the event. During the descent, on the upper deck of the ship, the guard of honor included a 78-year-old sailor who served on the frigate Aurora - the same 44-gun sailing ship that defended Petropavlovsk from the English squadron during the Crimean War. In addition, the descent was attended by a former officer of the famous frigate, and now Vice Admiral K.P. Pilkin.

The Aurora, without exaggeration, was one of the most advanced warships of its time. The new armored two-masted cruiser had a displacement of 6,731 tons, its length was 127 and its width was 16.8 meters. It had good artillery armament in the form of fourteen 152-mm guns, and in addition, it had a completely innovative air defense system at that time in the form of six 76-mm anti-aircraft guns.

The cruiser "Aurora" entered service as warships of the Russian Navy in 1903. The ship received its baptism of fire 5 years later in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, where it was seriously damaged and lost 15 crew members. The cruiser managed to escape from encirclement and go to Manila, where she remained disarmed until the end of the war. In 1906, the ship returned to the Baltic.

After repairs, the cruiser became part of the training detachment of the Naval Cadet Corps and made a number of voyages to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea, to the shores of Africa, Thailand and Indonesia.

During the First World War, the ship carried out patrol duty in the Baltic Sea and at the end of 1916 arrived in Petrograd for repairs.

And on November 7, 1917, the cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot and gave the signal for the storming of the Winter Court and the beginning of the October coup.

The armored two-masted cruiser Aurora, the future symbol of the October Revolution, was launched in St. Petersburg
In St. Petersburg, at the New Admiralty shipyard on May 24, 1900, Emperor Nicholas II personally launched the armored two-masted cruiser Aurora. The cruiser got its name from the 44-gun frigate Aurora, which during the Crimean War in 1854 ensured the successful defense of the city of Petropavlovsk from the twice superior forces of the English squadron of Admiral Price. The new cruiser entered service with the Russian Navy in 1903.

The ship received its baptism of fire 5 years later in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, where it was seriously damaged and lost 15 crew members. The cruiser managed to escape from encirclement and went to Manila, where on June 9, 1905, he was interned by local authorities, where he remained disarmed until the end of the war. In 1906, the ship returned to the Baltic. The hull and mechanisms underwent a major overhaul in 1906-1908. at the Franco-Russian and Baltic factories.
In addition, the combat fore top was removed, the conning tower was redone, torpedo tubes were dismantled and mine rails were installed. The number of 152 mm guns was increased to 10 (at the expense of 4x 75 mm).
After repairs, the cruiser became part of the training detachment of the Naval Cadet Corps and made a number of voyages to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea, to the shores of Africa, Thailand and Indonesia.
From November 1916 to November 1917, a repeated overhaul took place at the Franco-Russian plant with the replacement of boilers and rearmament (75 mm guns were dismantled, the elevation angles of 152 mm guns were increased, the number of which was increased to 14). During the First World War, he carried out patrol duty, covering the raiding and mine-laying operations of the light forces of the fleet. Participated in the defense of the Gulf of Riga in the summer of 1916, the February Revolution. On the night of November 7, 1917, the cruiser's radio station transmitted a message about the transition
power into the hands of the temporary revolutionary committee and the appeal “To the Citizens of Russia”, signed by V.I. Lenin. At 21:45 the same day, with a blank shot from the bow gun, the cruiser gave the signal to storm the Winter Palace.
From November 7 to 14, 1917, he participated in the suppression of the Kerensky-Krasnov rebellion. From January 4 to January 9, 1918, he moved from Helsingfors (Helsinki) to Kronstadt. From May 1918 to November 9, 1922 it was in the Kronstadt military port for long-term storage. During the Civil War, the cruiser's 152-mm guns were removed and sent to the Volga Military Flotilla to arm floating batteries. In November 1922, she was reorganized into a training ship. It underwent a major overhaul from November 1922 to February 23, 1923.
From July 9 to August 24, 1924, a hike with a visit to Bergen (Norway).
From July 28 to August 12, 1928, visits to Oslo (Norway) and Copenhagen (Denmark), from August 15 to 24, 1929 - to Swinemünde (Germany),
from July 15 to August 24, 1930 - a trip with a visit to Bergen (Norway),
Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Kristiansand (Norway).
On November 2, 1927, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and was the first in the RKKF to raise the order's Naval flag.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he was disarmed. The guns were sent to the land front and to the ships of the Black Sea Fleet.
During the war it was used as a floating barracks to accommodate submarine crews.
On September 30, 1941, he lay down on the ground in Oraniembaum from enemy artillery shells.
On July 20, 1944, it was raised by the rescue service of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and in 1945 towed to Leningrad for repairs at the Baltic Shipyard.
On November 6, 1948, she was laid up on the Bolshaya Nevka embankment.
In 1984 - 1987, repair and restoration work and re-equipment were carried out on the cruiser.
The scope of work allows us to talk about creating a new model of the cruiser using a certain number of original parts.
Currently used as a museum.

Displacement 7000 t. Dimensions 123.7/x16.8x6.4 m
Initial armament - 8 - 152/45, 24 - 75/50, 8 - 37 mm, 2 - 64 mm des., 1 NTA, 2 PTA
Reservation: deck 38-60-76 mm, deckhouse 152 mm
Mechanisms 3 vertical triple expansion machines with a power of 12300 hp. 24 Belleville water tube boilers, 3 screws
Speed 19.2 knots Cruising range 4000 miles. Crew of 20 officers and 550 sailors
PHOTOS ARE CLICKABLE

The cruiser "Aurora" launched, 1900

The cruiser "Aurora" being completed near the shipyard embankment, 1901-1902

The cruiser "Aurora" after entering service, 1903

Cruiser "Aurora", 1903

Cruiser "Aurora" before September 1903

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

Damage to the central part of the starboard side and chimneys of the cruiser, June 1905

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

The cruiser "Aurora" under the flag of Rear Admiral O. A. Enquist after arriving in Manila, June 1905

The cruiser "Aurora" on the roadstead of Manila after the Battle of Tsushima, June 1905

The cruiser Aurora, repainted white, shortly before leaving Manila, September 1905

The cruiser "Aurora" on its way to Russia, 1905

The cruiser "Aurora" in the Baltic, after 1909

Cruiser "Aurora" 1909-1910

Cruiser "Aurora" 1909-1914

Cruiser "Aurora"

Cruiser "Aurora"

Cruiser "Aurora" 1911

The cruiser "Aurora" in the port of Oranienbaum

The cruiser Aurora in 1916

The cruiser "Aurora" at the Franco-Russian plant, 1917

The cruiser "Aurora" during repairs at the Franco-Russian plant, 1917

The cruiser "Aurora" at the Franco-Russian plant, 1917

The cruiser "Aurora" being restored in 1923

The cruiser Aurora in the 1930s

The cruiser "Aurora" in Oranienbaum, 1942

The cruiser "Aurora" on the Petrograd embankment of the Bolshaya Nevka, 1975

Cruiser "Aurora" in the early 1980s

The cruiser "Aurora" on the Bolshaya Nevka near the Nakhimov School, 1982

Refurbishment at the Zhdanov plant, 1984-1987

The cruiser "Aurora" before launching, April 18, 1987

The cruiser "Aurora" before launching, April 18, 1987

The cruiser "Aurora" after leaving the boathouse, April 1987

The cruiser "Aurora" after leaving the boathouse, April 1987

Launch of the cruiser at the Zhdanov plant, April 18, 1987

Launch of the cruiser at the Zhdanov plant, April 18, 1987

The cruiser "Aurora" at the outfitting wall of the plant named after A.A. Zhdanova, summer 1987

Towing a cruiser to its eternal mooring site, August 16, 1987

Towing a cruiser to its eternal mooring site, August 16, 1987

Cruiser "AURORA" July 22, 2004.

On May 24 (May 11, old style), 1900, the most legendary ship of the Russian fleet, the cruiser Aurora, was launched.

For several generations of Soviet (and not only Soviet) people, the name of this cruiser became a kind of fetish. The legendary ship, which with its salvo heralded the onset of a new era in the history of mankind, the symbol of the Great October Socialist Revolution, is the most widely replicated cliché. What is the actual history of the cruiser Aurora?

A ship born at the turn of the century.

At the end of the 19th century, the Russian navy grew and was replenished with new ships. According to the classification of that time, there was such a subclass of cruisers - armored cruisers, that is, having an armored deck to protect the vital parts of the ship from mounted fire from enemy artillery. Armored cruisers did not carry side armor and were not intended for duels with battleships. It was to this type of warship that the cruiser Aurora, laid down on May 23, 1897 in St. Petersburg (at the New Admiralty), was 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. The cruiser inherited its name - "Aurora" (Morning Dawn) from the forty-four-gun Russian frigate "Aurora", which distinguished itself in battles with the allied Anglo-French squadron that besieged the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky back in August 1854.

The construction of the cruiser was carried out under the leadership of the talented Russian shipbuilding engineer K. M. Tokarevsky (1857-1904) at the Novo-Admiralty and Franco-Russian factories. The armor was supplied by the Izhora plant, and the artillery by the Obukhov plants.

After completing all the work and carrying out factory and sea trials, the armored cruiser Aurora entered service with the Russian Navy on July 29 (July 16, O.S.), 1903. The ship had a displacement of 6,731 tons, a maximum length of 126.8 m, a waterline length of 123.7 m, a width of 16.7 m, a bow draft of 6.4 m and a stern of 7.3 m. Three vehicles provided a speed of up to 20 knots.

The cruiser's armament consisted of eight 152 mm guns mounted on the upper deck, twenty-four 75 mm, eight 37 mm guns and three torpedo tubes. Subsequently, during the First World War, the number of 152-mm guns was increased to fourteen, and smaller-caliber artillery, which had lost its combat value, was removed.

The cruiser's crew consisted of 570 people. The cruiser Aurora and some other ships being built at that time are characterized by one feature in the finishing of the underwater part of the hull. The underwater part was sheathed on the outside with bars of teak - an oily, water-resistant wood of a valuable species - and on top of it with thin sheet copper. The teak plating, bolted to the outer side, was supposed to reduce corrosion of the hull, and the copper plating was supposed to prevent the strong fouling of the hull by shells.

The 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.

This ship was by no means unique in its combat qualities. The cruiser could not boast of a particularly fast 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). The ships of the other type of armored cruisers then adopted by the Russian fleet (Bogatyr) were much faster and one and a half times stronger. And the attitude of the officers and crews towards these “domestic-made goddesses” was not too warm - the Diana-class cruisers had a lot of shortcomings and constantly arising technical problems. Nevertheless, these cruisers were fully consistent with their intended purpose - reconnaissance, destruction of enemy merchant ships, covering battleships from attacks by enemy destroyers, patrol service - 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.

All three cruisers of this series (Diana, Pallada and Aurora) were intended for the Pacific Ocean, where a military conflict with Japan was brewing, and the first two of them were already in the Far East by the time the Aurora entered service as active ships. . The third sister also hurried to her relatives, and on September 25, 1903 (just a week after staffing, 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, 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 considered too risky to proceed further, since the Japanese fleet was blockading 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.

“Favorite” of Admiral Rozhdestvensky

On April 5, 1904, the Aurora returned to Kronstadt, where it was included in the 2nd Pacific Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky, 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 Arthurian squadron’s battles 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, let's say, an original personality. And 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 elegant literature. Thus, the cruiser “Admiral Nakhimov” was called “Idiot”, the battleship “Sisoy the Great” was called “Invalid Shelter”, and so on. The squadron included two ships with female names - the former yacht "Svetlana" and "Aurora". The commander nicknamed the first cruiser “The Maid,” and “Aurora” was awarded the completely obscene title “Fence Prostitute.” If Rozhdestvensky knew what ship he calls so disrespectfully!

“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. The Aurora itself received about a dozen hits, had a number of damage and serious losses in the crew - 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 a shrapnel from a Japanese shell and charred deck planks.

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

The Aurora returned to the Baltic at the beginning of 1906, along with several other ships that survived the Japanese defeat. In 1909-1910, “Aurora”, together with “Diana” and “Bogatyr”, was part of a detachment of overseas sailing, specially designed for internship by midshipmen of the Naval Corps and the Naval Engineering School, as well as students of the Training Team of Combat Non-Commissioned Officers. The Aurora crew did not participate in saving the residents of Messina from the consequences of the 1908 earthquake, but the Russian sailors from the Aurora received a medal for this feat from the grateful residents of the city when the cruiser visited this Sicilian port in February 1911. And in November 1911, Aurors took part in celebrations in Bangkok in honor of the coronation of the Siamese king.

World War I in the Baltic

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...

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 a good old ram - 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.

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...

"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 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.

In the fire of revolutions and wars

The Aurora did not take part in the civil war or battles with the English fleet. An acute shortage of fuel and other types of supplies led to the fact that the Baltic Fleet was reduced to the size of a bunker - an “active detachment” - consisting of only a few combat units. The Aurora was put into reserve, and in the fall of 1918, some of the cruiser’s guns were removed for installation on homemade gunboats of river and lake flotillas.

At the end of 1922, “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 its nine “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.

But the ship again - for the third time in its more than forty-year history - survived. 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. 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, the Ship Museum was opened on board the Aurora as a branch of the Central Naval Museum. The Aurora ceased to be a training ship for students of the Leningrad Nakhimov School in 1961, but it still retains its status as a museum ship. Long voyages and naval battles are a thing of the past - the time has come for a well-deserved and honorable retirement. A ship rarely meets such a fate - after all, ships usually either perish at sea or end their journey at the wall of a factory, where they are cut for scrap...

Veteran all-rounder

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 the same symbol of the city on the Neva as the Peter and Paul Fortress or the Bronze Horseman. The role of the cruiser in the October Revolution was extolled in every possible way, and there was even a joke: “Which ship in history had the most powerful weapons?” - “Cruiser “Aurora”! One blank shot - and the whole power collapsed!

In 1967, the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was widely celebrated in the Soviet Union. In Leningrad, near Smolny, fires were burning, near which, leaning on rifles, stood people in soldiers' greatcoats and pea jackets of revolutionary sailors of the seventeenth year with an indispensable attribute - with machine gun belts crossed on the chest and on the back.

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

However, it was not the first time for Aurora herself to act as a movie star. Back in 1946, during repairs, the Aurora played the role of the cruiser Varyag in the film of the same name. Then the Aurora, like a true actress, even had to put on make-up 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 veracity of the image of the most heroic cruiser of the Russian-Japanese War.

The last renovation of the Aurora took place in the mid-80s of the last century, and rumors about the “fake Aurora” are associated with this. The fact is that the cruiser’s bottom was completely replaced, and the old one was dragged into the Gulf of Finland and abandoned there. It was these amputated remains that gave rise to rumors.

The St. Andrew's flag was again raised on the ship in 1992, the cruiser is listed in the Russian Navy, and currently there are officers and sailors serving on the ship (even if there are ten times fewer of them than there once was). Of course, the Aurora itself will no longer be able to move away from its eternal mooring, but 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.

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

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

Materials used:

Maksimikhin I.A. Legendary ship. – M.: “Young Guard”, 1977. – 80 pp., ill.

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 imperfections. 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 the 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
© Public Domain
© Public Domain / “Varyag” after the battle of 1904. A list to the left side is visible.
© Public Domain
© Public Domain / Explosion "Korean".
© Public Domain
© Shutterstock.com
© Public Domain
© Public Domain
© RIA Novosti
© Public Domain
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti
©Commons.wikimedia.org
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti
© RIA Novosti

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 also highly appreciated 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 was 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 gun servants. 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 with fire the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh, 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 get close and put the Russian cruisers in 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 five 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 ferment among the lower ranks, which the officers had difficulty, but still managed to calm.

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...