The famous Aurora

Aurora, of the Pallada class, and another of Enkvist's cruisers at the battle of Tsushima. Here she is shown during - my guess - 1927, after she'd been awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On the stern can be seen the Soviet ensign in use between 1923 and 1935.

Her sisters Pallada and Diana were at Port Arthur. Pallada was sunk, raised and taken into the Japanese Navy. Diana escaped the Battle of the Yellow Sea to intern herself at Saigon under the French.

Aurora was interned along with Oleg and Zhemchug by the Americans in Manila following Tsushima in accordance with international treaties. She had a fairly innocuous record after that until October 1917.

Her refusal to follow the orders of the Provisional Government is credited with starting the Russian Revolution. Reputedly, she fired on the Winter Palace in Petrograd - although they're now widely believed to have been blanks.

She's now parked by the banks of the river Neva in St Petersburg as a museum ship.

Don