The Russian Navy's most famous flag ship, the Aurora, is moored on permanent display in the Neva river. It restored to its original condition. Built by the British and remembered as the ship that fired the opening shots of the communist revolution of 1917. It first saw action in 1905 in the Russo-Japanese War, where it battled Japanese naval forces off the Tsushima islands. While the Aurora returned home as the sole survivor of the battle, then U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, worked to forge a tenuous peace between Russia and Japan.

February 21, 2004