Old postcards Cruiser "Aurora"

The cruiser Aurora was launched in 1900 and went through the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 and the First World War. On the evening of 25 October 1917, gunner Ye. Ognev, on the order of commissar A. V. Belyshev, fired a single blank shot from the ship, and Aurora became one of the symbols of the October Revolution. Since 1948 she has been moored at the Petrogradskaya Embankment on the Bolshaya Nevka, with a museum on board.

The Soviet postcards of the cruiser Aurora in this section form a 1977 set about the museum ship and her crew: changing the watch at the gangway, raising the naval ensign, a sailor striking the ship’s bell, the radio room, a tour group on deck, a parade of Young Pioneers (the Soviet children’s organisation) and a festive salute. Several cards are about people: Aurora veterans, gunner Ye. P. Ognev, the first commissar A. V. Belyshev with sailor T. I. Lipatov, and cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov climbing the gangway.

Other cards look back at history. “Cruiser Aurora in the port of Lomonosov, 1942” refers to the war years, when the ship’s guns were removed for the defence of Leningrad while the cruiser lay in that harbour. Alongside are details of the diorama “Storming of the Winter Palace”, views of the Winter Palace and Smolny, and a carpet presented to the cruiser for the centenary of Lenin’s birth.

Every card is dated 1977, and together they tell one continuous story, from the crew’s daily routine to the museum rooms.