TASS, Monday, Monday, July 11, 2016
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – The legendary Russian navy cruiser ‘Aurora’, one of the most popular tourist attractions in St. Petersburg, will be handed back to the Russian Navy on July 15 following a two-year modernization refit, a source at the Kronstadt marine repair dock told TASS on Monday.
“The cruiser is 100% ready. It will be returned to the Russian Navy on July 15. The people of St. Petersburg will see it at its traditional anchorage on Petrogradskaya embankment on July 16,” the Kronstadt source said.
The Aurora has been undergoing modernization since September 2014 at an estimated cost of around 800 million rubles. It came into service with the Russian Navy in 1903, covering more than 100,000 miles and taking part in three wars.
Salvos from the ships guns on October 25, 1917 signaled the beginning of the armed uprising in the city on October 25, 1917, the Great October Socialist Revolution.
The cruiser was badly damaged during the three-year siege and defense of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) from 1941-44 during the Great Patriotic War against fascist Germany. The ship was repaired and moored at Petrogradzklaya embankment beginning in 1948.
Before 1956, the Aurora was a training base for the students of the Nakhimov Naval College located in St. Petersburg. The St. Andrew flag of the Russian Navy went up on the Aurora in 1992. It is ship number one in the Russian Navy.
A new historical exposition will open on the Aurora late in July. It includes nine rooms devoted to the cruiser’s participation in three wars – the 1904-1905 Russian-Japanese war and the first and second world wars.
Russian cruiser Aurora, on Wikipedia
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Aurora returns to St Petersburg quayside after refit (video), July 26, 2016
