An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 29 the February 1917 Revolution. The ship's commander, Captain MI Nikolsky, was killed when he refused to carry a red flag and tried to suppress the revolt. Most of the crew joined the Bolsheviks who were preparing for a communist revolution during the rule of the Provisional Government. In November 1917 the Aurora was again under repair in Petro- grad while at the same time the Provisional Government was established in the Winter Palace, the home of the deposed Tsar Nicholas II. The building was guarded by units of officer cadets, Cossacks and women's battalions, totalling around 3,000 troops. As they awaited the Bolshevik attack most of the garrison slipped away, leaving 300 to defend the palace. At 21.40hrs on 7th November 1917 (25th October in the Russian calendar) the Aurora fired a blank shot from its forecastle gun. (The blank was louder than a live round.) After a short interval, guns in the nearby Peter and Paul Fortress began firing live shells, most of which landed in the Neva. The majority of the defenders of the Winter Palace fled and Bolshevik troops easily entered the Palace where they arrested members of the Provisional Govern- ment and imprisoned them in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Vladimir Lenin then used the Aurora's radio to broadcast his address "to the citizens of Russia", proclaiming victory for the Bolsheviks. The October Revolution had begun. The Aurora became the symbol of the Revolution when the Communist Party commissioned film directors Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov to make the 1927 silent film, October: Ten Days that Shook the World. The film was shot as a documentary, with thousands of people appearing to storm the Winter Palace immediately after the shot was fired by the cruiser. This confirmed the legend of the Aurora´s shot starting the Revolution. In November 1927 the Aurora was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its revolutionary actions. More praise for the cruiser came from the Official History of the Soviet Communist Party (1939) which stated that by the thunder of its guns direct- ed on the Winter Palace the Aurora heralded 'the beginning of a new era, the era of the Great Socialist Revolution.' During the German invasion of the Sovi- et Union in 1941 the heavy guns were taken off the ship and used in land defences during the prolonged siege of Leningrad (as the city was renamed in 1924). The Aurora itself was moored at Oranienbaum port, with the remaining onboard gun crews operating in an anti-aircraft role. The ship was sunk at its mooring on 30 September 1941. In 1944 the Aurora was raised, repaired and permanently moored on the Neva at Petrogradskaya Embankment in 1948 as a monument to the Great October Socialist Revolution. In 1956 a branch of the Central Naval Museum was opened on the cruiser, while in 1968 the Aurora was awarded the Order of the October Revolution. In 1987 the ship underwent extensive repairs, repair- ing the decayed hull below the waterline with a new welded hull, in line with the original drawings. In 2016 Aurora reopened to the public after another two-year overhaul. The museum on board now comprises ten rooms, cover- ing all aspects of the ship and its history as well as both World Wars and both revolutions. There is also an exhibition on the history of naval medicine, the Aurora being the first Russian naval ship to use X-ray equipment. To date, the Aurora and the museum exhibition have been visited by many millions of visitors. The cruiser is one of the few remain- ing warships from the early 20th century (the cruiser HMS Caroline in Belfast being another), and she remains a major tourist attrac- tion in St Petersburg and an enduring symbol of the Octo- ber Revolution. Peter Mulready has an MA in Military History and is a council member of the Military History Society of Ireland. The Aurora now The extensive exhibition space below deck The exhibition on deck Captain Yegoryev, killed at Tsushima, framed in a piece of penetrated armour. Soviet banners

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