Aurora is a 1900 Russian protected cruiser, currently preserved as a museum ship in St. Petersburg. She battled the Japanese Navy in the Russo-Japanese War. One of the first incidents of the Communist Revolution in Russia took place on the cruiser Aurora. During the First World War the ship operated in the Baltic Sea. In 1915 her armament was changed to fourteen 152 mm (6 in) guns. At the end of 1916, the ship was moved to Saint Petersburg (later Petrograd) for a major repair. The city was brimming with revolutionary ferment and part of her crew joined the 1917 February Revolution. A revolutionary committee was created on the ship (Aleksandr Belyshev was elected its captain). Most of the crew joined the Bolsheviks, who were preparing for a Communist revolution.
On 25 October 1917, Aurora refused to carry out an order to put to sea, which sparked the October Revolution. At 9.45 p.m. on that date, a blank shot from her forecastle gun signalled the start of the assault on the Winter Palace, which was to be the last episode of the October Revolution. The cruiser's crew actually took part in the attack. Oxana sent me this card.
