Aurora was a Russian, later Soviet, armored cruiser, under which the keel was laid in 1896 at the Admiralty Shipyard in St.Petersburg, launched in May 1900, and commissioned in 1903. The length of the ship was 126.8 m, width 16.8 m, and a displacement of about 6,700 tons. The maximum speed was up to 19 knots. The main armament in 1917 was 14 152 mm guns, and the secondary armament consisted of six 76 mm anti-aircraft guns and three 381 mm torpedo tubes.
Aurora, along with the ships "Diana" and "Pałłada" belonged to the Diana class. Ships of this type were designed as units intended to destroy enemy navigation along its communication routes, especially in the Pacific Ocean. They were created as part of the fleet expansion program from 1895. However, they were not considered highly successful units. First of all, they were relatively slow for the tasks they were supposed to perform, due to the use of too weak machines and careless design. They also had insufficient main armament. Aurora took part in the Battle of Tsushima on May 27-28, 1905 and, moreover, survived the battle, despite receiving 18 hits. In the period 1906-1914, the Aurora was used primarily as a training ship. At the outbreak of World War I, it operated in the Baltic Sea, but did not take any major military operations until 1916, when it was sent to the then Petrograd (today's St. Petersburg) for renovation. The dam went down in history when on November 7, 1917, the signal for the Bolsheviks to storm the Winter Palace, becoming one of the most important symbols of the October Revolution. The ship did not take part in the activities in the course of World War II, and since 1948 it has been serving as a museum ship.