The legacy of Bolsheviks and CPSU is diverse and tenacious: from the notorious “gold of the Party” to successful “red directors”, from countless monuments to Lenin to never-ending construction projects. The list is long indeed.
Standing apart in this list is the powerful propagandist machine: its first nodes had triggered into action before the coup and continue working even today. Did you hear an old Soviet joke where Napoleon laments in his conversation with Marshal Murat: “If only I had the Pravda newspaper, the world would have never known about my disgrace at Waterloo!”
While Pravda is no longer published in its old version, the myths created by the red propaganda prove amazingly tenacious and enduring.
It’s high time to recall one of them on November 7. The salvo of cruiser Aurora’s canons aimed at the Winter Palace heralded on October 25 (according to the old style) the inauguration of a new era – the era of the Great Socialist Revolution.” This was the text invented by Agitprop conjurers for the memory stele set up in 1939 on the English (then Red Fleet) Embankment of Leningrad.
We cannot but feel pity for the Aurora. The ship recently turned 111, but it still remains a storm bringer of the proletarian revolution in the minds of many. We should admit that after the end of the sailing fleet epoch very few Russian men of war have been worthy of the glorious memory of battleships and frigates from the Orlov, Ushakov, Sinyavin and Nakhimov squadrons. Individual exploits did take place during the Russian-Japanese and two world wars, but on the whole the Russian fleet has not gained victories similar to those at Chesma and Sinop. It mainly acted on the defensive, transported reserves and resources and kept sea lanes under control.
Aurora is one of the few ships that managed to write its own name into the heroic list of the modern steel-iron fleet era. Judge for yourself: during the Tsushima disaster in May 1904, 21 out of 38 Russian ships perished and 7 others were captured by the Japanese. Aurora was among the ten ships that escaped. What was particularly important, the cruiser did not sit out somewhere in the background but was fighting in the first row during the day. It suffered numerous hits and lost 92 sailors who were killed or wounded, including its commander, first rank captain Yegoryev who was mortally wound.
Aurora fought two full years during the WWI holding the fort in the Baltic Sea. Only in the fall of 1916 it was anchored for a regular overhaul. In the days of the February Revolution the cruiser lost commander and first rank captain Nikolsky and senior officer Ogranovich. Both men were killed by the mob who demanded that they take red flags. They would not budge.
In 1941 the cruiser’s cannonry defended Oranienbaum. Nazis failed to seize the Oranienbaum spot largely due to the contribution of Aurora’s crew and especially its artillerists. Otherwise the fate of blockaded Leningrad could have been more tragic.
Three hits of the Nazi guns put “Aurora” aground as early as the fall of 1941. Like the giant battleship Marat in Kronstadt, it was fighting in a stationary position, being an enviable target. The last hull breach took place in September 1943.
The fate of Aurora causes regret. Dozens of years in the combat formation of the Baltic Fleet are not remembered; in modern-day Russia the ship is discussed only in the context of the notorious volley in autumn 1917… We’d better abstain from discussing the parties of bureaucrats with evil conscience and wealthy snobs on board Aurora in the modern age. Balabanov’s film On Freaks and Humans tells a different story, but the title is universal, isn’t it?
On the other hand, such an attitude to the battleship is quite explicable: in the minds of many Aurora remains a token of the Bolshevist coup; its gun signaled the beginning of the October mutiny and seizure of the Winter Palace. This kind of thinking rules out a respectful attitude towards the ship.
It comes out that the Soviet propaganda is worthy of admiration if it could wash the brain of advanced wealthy snobs so effectively. Soviet power was banished long ago, but Soviet brainwashing still bears abundant fruit even today!
I wonder, whether those rascals from new and free Russia would mount on board the old cruiser if they knew the truth?
There was no salvo of Aurora’s cannonry on October 25 (November 7), no order to beat an artillerist parley, no seizure of the Winter Palace, and no princesses from the women’s battalion heroically defending the palace.
There was a cruiser passing through a regular repair and anchored on the Neva at Nikolaevsky (now Annunciation) Bridge. There was commander named Erikson who had long refused to sail the ship to the middle of the river. There was a Bolshevik named Antonov-Ovseenko who visited the cruiser on October 25 in the daytime and ordered the firing of a couple of blank volleys towards the Winter Palace after a signal from the canon stationed at the Peter and Paul Fortress. There was chairman of Aurora’s committee Belyshev who commanded “fire” at 9:40 pm and there was a single blank volley.
By that time detachments of workers had already seized all strategic objects in St. Petersburg, Kerensky had already fled from the capital, military school students and girls from the women’s battalion had already stopped their heroic resistance. The armed forces of the Soviets appeared on the Palace Square 40 minutes earlier at 9 pm sharp. Why then did commissar Belyshev command to fire a blank volley? As early as in the 1930’s the ship log that most certainly contained some explanation melted into thin air and so we’ll probably never find out the visions or dreams of Aurora in late October of 1917. Who knows, maybe Bolsheviks in Smolny forgot about Aurora in those hot moments and when they remembered about it, everything was over already? And maybe commissar Belyshev delayed the fulfillment of Antonov-Ovseenko’s decree just in case?
A certain curious document was not published uncut in Soviet years. I mean the letter of the same man Belyshev and comrade Andreev, chairman of the ship committee, they sent to the editorial office of the Worker’s Way newspaper on October 17 (November 9) of 1917. Here are two most important excerpts:
“The press reports that Aurora opened fire on the Winter Palace. Are Mssrs columnists aware that if we opened fire from the canons, not a stone would be left either from the Winter Palace or from the adjacent streets? Do not believe in the provocative rumors. As regards the fire from the cruiser, a single blank volley was made from a 6-inch gun that was just a signal for all ships moored on the Neva, calling them to be vigilant and ready.
This report does not smack of the desire to herald the world about the new era, does it?
Incidentally, the Pravda newspaper was published under the name of Worker’s Way in the fall of 1917 – yes, that very Worker’s Way!
The Bonaparte lament seems not so far from the truth …
Mikhail Bykov
