At permanent berth on the Petrogradskaya embankment stands a cruiser from which—according to official history—a new world began. The Aurora is a ship of legend, a ship of symbol, a ship whose blank shot in October 1917 signaled the storming of the Winter Palace. Today it's a museum, but the aura of history hasn't faded.

Ship History

Birth

The Aurora was built in 1900 at the New Admiralty shipyard in St. Petersburg. A protected cruiser of the first rank—medium class by the era's standards. Named after a frigate that defended Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1854.

Combat History

The cruiser serv...