AURORA CRUISER
Read moreSoviet nostalgia... After leaving St. Petersburg for nearly 3 years of renovation, the cruiser Aurora returned with great pomp and circumstance on July 19, 2016. Moored at the confluence of the Neva and the Great Neva, this battleship more than a century old (built between 1897 and 1900 on the orders of Nicholas II) of impeccable metallic grey is to Saint Petersburg what the mausoleum of Lenin is to Moscow in terms of revolutionary symbolism. It was indeed from the cruiser Aurora that the signal for the revolution of October 1917 was given, marking the dawn of a new era for the country and the world. It was indeed his cannon shot fired with blanks that announced to the revolutionary soldiers and sailors the moment of the assault on the Winter Palace. Before that, he had fought in the Pacific waters against the Japanese in 1904 and then crossed swords with the German navy in the Baltic. Since 1948, when it was permanently anchored at Petrogradskaya Quay, east of the Peter and Paul Fortress, its long grey hull topped by three chimneys has been an integral part of the urban landscape of Leningrad and is likely to be part of the urban landscape of St Petersburg for a long time to come. There has been talk of moving it, scrapping it, not to mention more or less far-fetched projects such as turning it into a discotheque. The USSR is no more, but its legacy lives on. Although it is not the most interesting museum in the city, the visit is nevertheless very popular with children.