Soon after completion, on 10 October 1903,Aurora departedKronstadt as part of Admiral Virenius's "reinforcing squadron" forPort Arthur.[4] While in theRed Sea, still en route to Port Arthur, the squadron was recalled back to theBaltic Sea, under protest byAdmiral Makarov, who specifically requested Admiral Virenius to continue his mission to Port Arthur. Only the seven destroyers of the reinforcing squadron were allowed to continue to theFar East.[5]
After her detachment from the reinforcing squadron and her arrival back to home port she underwent new refitting.[6] After refitting,Aurora was ordered back to Port Arthur as part of the Russian Baltic Fleet[7][8]Aurora sailed as part ofAdmiralOskar Enkvist'sCruiser Squadron whoseflagship would be the protected cruiserOleg, an element of AdmiralZinovy Rozhestvensky'sBaltic Fleet.[9] On the way to the Far East,Aurora received five hits, sustaining light damage from confused friendly fire, which killed the ship's chaplain and a sailor, in theDogger Bank incident.[10]
During theBattle of TsushimaAurora was only lightly damaged. Despite this, the ship's captain,Evgeny Egoriev, was killed. At nightfall,Aurora along withOleg, were attacked by torpedo boats and at 22:00 they gave up trying to proceed north and headed southwest.[11] Once dawn arrived it was found thatZhemchug had retreated with the other two ships.[12] Enkvist decided transfer his command toAurora then take his ships toManila and American internment.[12] On the way toManila, the ship's doctor managed to set up the ship's X-ray equipment and performed the first post battle X-rays in Russian naval history.[13] Evgeny Egoriev was buried at sea on 3 June 1905.[14]
DuringWorld War I,Aurora operated in the Baltic Sea performing patrols and shore bombardment tasks. In 1915, her armament was changed to fourteen 152 mm (6 in) guns. In late 1916 she was moved toPetrograd for repairs.[15]
By late 1916, whenAurora arrived in Petrograd, conditions in the capital had deteriorated and the city was lawless and suffering from a cold winter and food shortages. Dissatisfaction with the Tsar was approaching a breaking point.[16]
During theFebruary Revolution, a significant number of the enlisted men had become sympathetic with, or had outright joined, theBolsheviks. This led to increasing tensions between the officer class—who were generally Tsarists—and the enlisted men.[17]
Tensions came to a head after officers fired their pistols at the enlisted men in an attempt to restore order. The crew captured the ship's captain, Mikhail Nikolsky, and ordered that he carry a red flag as a symbol of support for the Bolshevik cause. When he declined, he was shot and killed as were an unknown number of the ship's officers.[18][17]
A revolutionary committee was formed and a new captain was elected. The ship joined the Bolshevik cause and became the first major Russian warship to fly the red flag of the Bolshevik cause.[15][19][17]
On the eve of theOctober Revolution the ship was assigned to dislodge loyalist military cadets from theNikolayevsky Bridge. After carrying out that assignment, the ship fired the famous blank shot that, according to Russian lore, was the signal to begin the assault on the Winter Palace. It is for this action that the ship is best known and most closely identified in Russian culture.[20][18][19]
In 1918 Aurora was relocated to the naval dockyard at Kronstadt and her new 6-inch guns were removed and installed on floating batteries to be used by the Bolsheviks during the civil war.[17]
In 1922,Aurora returned to service as a training ship.[citation needed]
During the Second World War, her guns were taken from the ship and used in theland defence ofLeningrad. The ship herself was docked inOranienbaum port,[21] and was repeatedly shelled and bombed. On 30 September 1941, she was damaged and sunk in the harbour.[citation needed]
She was later salvaged and repaired after the war.[22]
The ship was opened as a museum ship in Leningrad in 1957, as a monument to the October Revolution.[23]
After having served as a museum ship for 27 years, from 1984 to 1987, the cruiser was once again placed in her construction yard, the Admiralty Shipyard, for capital restoration. During the overhaul, due to deterioration, the ship's hull below the waterline was replaced with a new welded hull according to the original drawings. The cut off lower hull section was towed into theGulf of Finland to the decommissionedRuchi Naval Base [ru], and sunk near the shore. The restoration revealed that some of the ship's parts, including the armour plates, were originally made in Britain.[24]
In January 2013, Russian Defence MinisterSergey Shoygu announced plans to recommissionAurora and make her the flagship of theRussian Navy due to her historical and cultural importance.[25] On 21 September 2014, the ship was towed to theAdmiralty Shipyard inKronstadt to be overhauled,[21][26] to return in 2016.[27] On 16 July 2016, she returned to her home harbour in Saint Petersburg.[28]
Due to the honoring of the ship with high state awards, the flag flown at the stern is a special version of the main Naval Ensign. This tradition dates back to 1927, whenAurora was awarded theOrder of the Red Banner and lasted until the end ofSoviet Navy and was then resumed after returning from a major overhaul in 2016.[31]
^Corbett (2015) Vol. 2, Chapters I, VI, X, XI, XIII, XIV
^British Naval Attache Reports (2003) p. 354 the new redesignation to the 2nd Pacific Squadron was rarely used, in both Corbett texts and official British Naval Attache Reports, the termBaltic Fleet is mostly consistent.
^"Aurora".Museum Ships.us. Archived fromthe original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved18 March 2021.
^""Аврора" вернется в строй" ["Aurora" will return to service].Dve Novosti (in Russian). 27 January 2013. Archived fromthe original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved5 June 2021.
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Budzbon, Przemysław (1985). "Russia". In Gray, Randal (ed.).Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 291–325.ISBN0-85177-245-5.
Corbett, Sir Julian. (2015)Maritime Operations in the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Vol. 2 originally published October 1915. Naval Institute PressISBN978-1-59114-198-3
Dowling, Timothy C.Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond. ABC-CLIO, 2015.ISBN978-1-59884-947-9
Hill, Alexander (2024).Soviet Cruisers 1917-1945: From the October Revolution to World War II. New Vanguard. Vol. 326. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing.ISBN9781472859334.
McLaughlin, Stephen (2019). "InAvrora's Shadow: The Russian Cruisers of theDiana Class". In Jordan, John (ed.).Warship 2019. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. pp. 81–97.ISBN978-1-4728-3595-6.
Skvorcov, Aleksiey V. (2015).Cruisers of the First Rank:Avrora,Diana,Pallada. Sandomierz, Poland: Stratus.ISBN978-83-63678-56-2.
Watts, Anthony J. (1990).The Imperial Russian Navy. London: Arms and Armour.ISBN0-85368-912-1.
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