The second most popular ghost ship after the Flying Dutchman is, however, unlike it, it really existed. "Amazon" (as the ship was first called) was notorious. The ship changed owners many times, the first captain died during the first voyage, then the ship was thrown aground during a storm, and finally, an enterprising American bought it. He renamed the "Amazon" to "Mary Celeste", believing that the new name would save the ship from trouble.
In 1872, a ship en route from New York to Genoa with a cargo of alcohol on board was discovered by the ship "Dei Grazia" without a single person on board. All personal belongings of the crew were in their places, in the captain's cabin was his wife's jewelry box and her own sewing machine with unfinished sewing. True, the sextant and one of the boats disappeared, which suggests that the crew left the ship.
"Lady Lovibond"
According to legend, the captain of the ship, Simon Reed, contrary to the belief of the sea, took a woman, his young wife, onto the ship. According to one version, his assistant was secretly in love with the young Mrs. Reid and sent the ship to a sandbank at night. According to another, the members of the team desired the charms of the captain's wife and, after hanging him, raped the woman and drank for three days. As a result, the ship crashed. One way or another, the woman was to blame.
Exactly fifty years after the wreck of the Lady Lovibond, several crews of merchant ships claimed to have seen the Lady at the wreck. Boats were sent there, but the rescuers could not find anyone.
"Octavius"
One of the first ghost ships. The Octavius became such because its crew froze in 1762 (at least the last entry in the logbook is dated this year), and the ship drifted for another 13 years and completed its voyage with the dead on board. The captain tried to find a short way from China to England through the Northwest Passage (sea route through the Arctic Ocean), but the ship was covered with ice.
"Beychimo"
The cargo ship was built in 1911 and was transporting skins to northwestern Canada. In 1931, the ship got stuck in the ice during the next voyage. Only a week later the ice broke under the weight of the ship, and the voyage was continued. However, 8 days later, history repeated itself. The crew went ashore, planning to wait for the thaw. But the next day the ship disappeared. The crew decided that the ship had sunk, but the Coast Guard reported that they had seen the Baichimo 60 kilometers from the coast in the ice. The owner company decided to leave the ship, as it was badly damaged, but it again escaped from the ice captivity and plowed the Bering Strait for another 38 years. In 2006, the Alaska government launched a campaign to capture Baichimo, but the search was unsuccessful.
"Carroll A. Dearing"
An American five-masted cargo schooner was abandoned by the crew under unknown circumstances off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina (USA). The ship was returning from Rio de Janeiro, where it was carrying coal.
On January 9, 1921, the schooner left Barbados, where she made an intermediate stop. After that, a few days later she was seen in the Bahamas, then Cape Canaveral, and on January 31 she was found stranded off Cape Hatteral. There was not a single person on the ship. There were no lifeboats either, but food was prepared in the galley. Rescuers also found a gray cat on the deck, which they took with them.
"Urang Medan"
In June 1947, the Silver Star received a distress call from the Dutch ship Ourang Medan in the Gulf of Malacca. Along with the signal, the message “Everyone is dead. Soon it will come for me." Inspired by this life-affirming message, Silver Star went in search. The ship was found, but the entire crew, including the ship's dog, was dead. Despite the fact that death occurred about 8 hours ago, the corpses were still warm. There were no signs of violence on the bodies, but the arms of all the dead were stretched forward, as if they were defending themselves.
The ship was decided to be towed to the port, but a fire started on it, and then it exploded. As it turned out later, Ourang Medan was not assigned to any port. According to one version, the cause of the death of the crew and the ship itself was the smuggling of nitroglycerin or nerve gas left over from the Second World War.
"Valencia"
The passenger liner Valencia sank off the coast of Vancouver in 1906. There were not enough rescue boats for everyone (it feels like we not only heard something like that, but even watched a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio ...), and most of the passengers died. This, of course, led to the fact that the tragic story was overgrown with myths, and the Valencia is regularly seen by local sailors before a storm. And in 1970, an absolutely empty lifeboat from the Valencia was washed ashore in excellent condition.
The ship honestly works all her life, not knowing rest, fearing neither storms nor enemy torpedoes. Not having time to arrive at the port, he is in a hurry to hand over the cargo, take stocks and new cargo, in order to quickly go back to the sea, to distant shores.
At first, this is a young, full of strength ship. All machines and mechanisms work flawlessly, the freshly painted body easily cuts through the water. But years pass, and gradually the ship wears out. The engine is playing tricks, the casing has rusted, the hull is deformed, more and more often you have to turn to the shipyard for help, and each time repairs are more expensive. Finally, there comes a moment when the owner comes to the conclusion that his ship has outlived its time.
In capitalist countries, before scrapping a ship, the shipowner tries to sell it. To whom? Often morally or physically obsolete ships are sold to countries that are at a relatively low technical and economic level. However, sometimes buyers are also at home - for example, the port authority can purchase some decrepit boat at a reasonable price to use it as housing, say, for repair workers and divers. But the shipowner has little chance of such a profitable deal. It is a different story when it comes to the famous ship.
Then the owner does not need to look for buyers - they themselves will besiege him with tempting offers.
When the Cunard Line announced its intention to decommission its famed express liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, requests and proposals poured in the very next day. For the Queen Elizabeth alone, the company received over 100 inquiries and five very serious offers to buy the liner to turn it into a museum, hotel or other entertainment or entertainment facility for wealthy tourists.
To the deep indignation of the British, who legitimately considered these liners to be national pride, which reminded them of the times when England was the mistress of the seas, the company sold both liners across the ocean to America. There they were put one in the port of Long Beach, the other in the port of the Everglades - in fashionable resort areas, where they began to make excellent bait for visiting rich people. Amusement complexes were created around the former rulers of the Atlantic: amusement parks, restaurants, hotels, night bars, etc.
Enterprising Yankees, wasting no time, smartly sold the liners piece by piece: in a special store you could buy a faucet with a Queen Mary for $ 8.5, for $ 12.5 - a half-meter piece of mooring cable and other utensils. People who have ever flown on famous liners have spared no expense to purchase such souvenirs. 
Queen Elizabeth at first was more fortunate - they were going to create a Museum of the Sea on this ship.
However, the Americans did not get Queen Elizabeth either. In 1968 The "Queen" became the property of a wealthy Chinese shipowner from Hong Kong, who bought the famous liner for $3.2 million. As if mocking the national pride of the British, the new owner named the ship Seaways University [University of Waterways (?)]. Deciding to use his acquisition as a cruise ship, the owner ordered the liner to be delivered to the port of Hong Kong and refitted in a "Chinese style". But here, apparently, nature itself rebelled against abuse. January 9, 1972, at 9 o'clock in the morning, a fire started somewhere in the bowels of the ship. An hour and a half later, the fire was already raging on the main deck, and after five hours the ship listed 17 °. For more than a day, the fire destroyed the masterpiece of English shipbuilders. On January 10, the remains of Queen Elizabeth disappeared underwater. The magnificent liner has ceased to exist.
But turning into a museum or a monument is not the lot of all ships. Desperate to find a buyer, the shipowner sells the old ship by weight as scrap metal. Having signed a contract, he sends the battered ship on its last voyage - to the ship cemetery - a specialized shipyard, where it will be scrapped.
At this enterprise, the observer does not leave the impression that he is watching a film about the construction of the ship, and the tape is scrolled backwards, from the end. Floor after floor, structure after structure, the cranes are being removed from the vessel. Autogenous cutters shred the hull; the removed components and structures are sent to a scrap metal warehouse, and gradually only the keel remains from the ship, from which the construction of the ship once began.
It would seem that this is death? - Not! Three times no! Some time will pass and the scrap metal will enter the melting furnaces and will be poured into molds by a red-hot iron river. From it, a new rolled product will be born, - sheet or profile, - which will be used to create a new vessel.
And now a new keel is being laid, steel structures are being erected one after another, after a while a finished hull will appear on the slipway, then the ship will be launched, and in its bold outlines it will be easy to guess the hardness and power of its predecessor - the ship that sailed its age and was melted down to be reborn in the hull of a beautiful new ship.
The ship is immortal!
From the book by S.I. Belkin "Journey through the ships".
The bottomless black sky sparkled with myriads of sharp, unblinking stars, mercilessly suppressing with their radiance the faint glow of the nebulae and distant galaxies. The vault of heaven was crossed by a muddy whitish stripe – this is what a pancake of a spiral galaxy looks like from the inside. A mass of stars, indistinguishable to the eye… And only one celestial body stood out among the others – a dazzlingly white tiny disk, as if a red-hot nail head driven into the vault of heaven.
A violet flash flashed briefly, and where a moment ago there was nothing, a cyclopean ball appeared, like a giant drop of mercury, wrapped in a ghostly fiery shell with prominences. Another moment, and the phenomenon disappeared again - the camouflage system turned on. Of course, in this wild system, no one is able to detect not only the starship itself, but also the characteristic flash of exit from hyperspace into reality, which for any control system of a highly developed civilization would mean an invasion. However, the quasi-brain of a starship did not know such a term - "maybe." That is why the ship left the hypertransition so far from the local star, beyond the orbit of the last major planet. Reducing risk to an absolute minimum - all the points of this instruction were sewn into memory even when the ship was created.
Deep in the bowels of a colossal machine - or rather a quasi-organism - four creatures rested in capsules that looked like large transparent eggs, tightly coiled in a fetal position. Listening, the ship's quasi-brain felt a certain satisfaction, to the extent that its creators had equipped it with quasi-emotions. The crew was alive, did not receive the slightest damage, and the next stage of the expedition can begin.
The hibernator compartment suddenly expanded, turning into a real hall, worthy of receiving the owners of the ship. Transparent eggs filled with a pink glow, began to stretch, and suddenly burst, releasing the prisoners at once. Reflections of pink light were still fading in the air, when the outermost figure stirred, turned around, groping for solid support with its feet. A few moments later, the others moved.
The first figure to stand up snapped its fingers, and the walls of the hall became translucent. Against the background of the starry panorama, green letters and symbols ran.
"Get up, couch potatoes!" You are welcome!
The crew members of the starship Star of Hope rose to their feet, examining themselves and each other, not in the least embarrassed by their nakedness.
- What already? Wow, I just fell asleep...
The one who got up first, whom the awakened one called Wa, made a barely noticeable gesture, and a luminous circle appeared against the background of the starry sky. Inside the circle, an image of a white-and-blue ball appeared - powerful optics magnified the image of a target, almost invisible to the naked eye.
“Here she is, Gromma Three. The girl who got up last looked at the image of the planet. Hello, wild world! We came…
– Don't relax, colleagues. The one called Wa turned around. - The first is the procedure for determining the absence of external control. The second is the collection of preliminary data on the state of the planet. And in general, we have a lot of work. Until then, breakfast! Festive, in honor of the completion of the hypertransition.
Chapter one
First contacts
- Gyr-gyr-gyr!
The screams spurred on, burned like the blows of a burning branch, and Ad-Amm kept picking up the pace. The low-browed ones began to fall behind a little - it is true that the spears hindered them even more than Ad-Ammu himself - but the hunter did not relax. It's hard to break away from the lowbrows. Yes, in running for short distances they are far from Real people, but they can trot at least half a day ... However, it’s not far to the edge of their hunting grounds, they won’t go further ... They would run to their own ... trouble if they were taken by surprise ... seven women and children, and there are almost no hunters ...
He missed the moment when the furious cries of his pursuers gave way to screams of horror. And yet, even if he caught it, what's the point?
The lone lion was old. Apparently, not so long ago it was the leader of the pride, but its time has passed. Some young lion drove away an old man who had lost his former strength and dexterity in battle - there are recently healed scars on his face, left by a more successful rival. And now the former leader is forced to wander around the outskirts of the pride's hunting estates, eating carrion and random prey. What was Ad-Amm at the moment.
The lion jumped out of the bushes with a menacing growl, but without much effort. Probably, the cunning feline brain fully appreciated the alignment - both the fact that the driven hunter had nowhere to go, and the fact that screaming bipeds would not come to the aid of the victim with their sharp sticks. Lunch is ready…
Ad-Amm still managed to put a spear in front of him, but the lion casually knocked it off with his paw. Time seemed to stretch. As in a dream, Ad-Amm stared numbly at the invading open mouth with long yellow fangs ...
Some terrible invisible force suddenly lifted him into the air, simultaneously throwing the predator away like a bunch of dry grass. Out of the corner of his eye, Ad-Amm only managed to notice a strange creature surrounded by a luminous halo. And darkness came...
The walls of the hall looked like amber honeycombs, in the hexagonal cells of which a weightless fog flickered and shimmered with iridescent colors. The floor, on the contrary, was a perfect uniform plane of deep blue, as if carved from a single aquamarine crystal.
A large ball, carelessly painted with strokes of white, through which greenery, sometimes yellowness, and an indefinite gray-brown color showed through, rotated in the air, without leaning on anything. However, among the flowers, after white, greenish-blue prevailed.
“Yeah… Harsh planet”
The hosts exchanged glances. They did not have to speak out loud, telepathic mental images are much more convenient for communication. One of them, who was closer to the ball, made a short movement with his fingers, and the hologram obediently changed. Disappeared randomly scattered white smears of clouds, disappeared thick whitish whirlwinds of cyclones. But even after that, there was plenty of white left - everything North hemisphere was white.
"Snow cover down to such low latitudes... unthinkable"
“Cover, this is temporary. With such an inclination of the planet's axis to the orbit, there is nothing surprising - rather natural. And here you look at it, colleagues "
A new movement of the fingers, and the globe finally lost its resemblance to the original, acquiring a conventionally schematic form. The snow cover has disappeared. However, even after that, the white color did not completely lose its position. Enormous white spots occupied a large part of the land, and the polar ocean kept the color unchanged.
“Sheet glaciers… just some kind of horror”
"And non-melting polar ice on the sea"
“Not everything is so terrible, colleagues. In low latitudes, the temperature regime is quite suitable for the development of a primary civilization"
“You are still an incorrigible optimist, Ilu. It is not known if there are sentient beings here at all."
“And pessimists have nothing to do in our service, Mayar. There must be, simply because we're already here. And the Soothsayers rarely make mistakes in determining promising worlds.
“Well, well… Remember Lyoka. I don’t mention the Fourth Enigma at all, so as not to injure our respected boss.”
“Exceptions are there to prove the rules, May. Attention, Eli is in touch!
The virtual globe disappeared instantly, as befits a hologram. The three creatures turned their heads at once, listening intently, as if it were not a telepathy but a sound transmission.
"Well, Elentari?"
“Who there doubted about the carriers of the mind? Yes, they are just swarming! I literally ran into it right off the bat, and two different species, apparently ... however, research is needed ”
“Don't talk your teeth into me, Eli, I can feel it. Why are you dragging him to the Star of Hope?”
“Wa, well, I couldn’t leave him! It would have been eaten there in an instant."
“You’re like a little one, honestly. The bearer of a great mission ... I would take it away and let it out, that’s all.”
Made and sent by Anatoly Kaydalov._____________________
Aurora 5
Great Start 8
Conversation in Smolny 28
Case with armored cars 37
Access to fairway 51
At Nikolaevsky bridge 60
Shot from the "Aurora" 67
Commissioner's report 84
Biography of ship 93
Every year, in the haze of a festive November evening, a high silhouette of a ship appears over the Neva. Its hull, masts, tank gun and three thin long tubes are fringed with garlands of electric lights. On the facade of the bridge, as if on the chest of a warrior, the illuminated Order of the Red Banner flares with a ruby.
This is the cruiser "Aurora", the immortal ship of the revolution, whose name is beautiful, as the original meaning of the word that has come down to us from ancient times: "Aurora" means "morning dawn" - scarlet and golden light along the horizon before sunrise.
"Aurora"
On a sunny November morning, so rare in the autumn season in the Baltic regions, on the eve of the holiday dedicated to the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, a short elderly man stopped at the pier at the mouth of the Bolshaya Nevka, near which the red banner cruiser Aurora was anchored. Nothing distinguished him from the many people who visit the pier every day.
1 Moored - tied with ropes.
Like all of them, he looked at the huge ship with curiosity.
The heavy building of the Aurora towered over the granite embankment not far from the building of the Leningrad Nakhimov School. The ship lived. Light smoke curled from its chimneys, rising into the cloudless sky, towards the sun.
Unusual sailors busily scurried about on the deck and bridges: teenagers dressed in black naval uniforms - young students of the Nakhimov School, which now owned the Aurora cruiser.
Having inspected the cruiser from the pier, the stranger stepped onto the ladder1 and presented his document to the watchman2.
1 Ladder - stairs on the ship.
2 Watchman - on duty on the ship.
- Hello change! he said smiling.
The watch officer read the document and, saluting, showed the visitor to the door of the aft vestibule3.
3 Aft vestibule - a room like a booth on the aft part of the upper deck.
The guest chuckled.
- I didn't forget the way! The ship is familiar to me .. Is the commander at home?
And, having learned that he was waiting for him, he slowly went to the stern vestibule.
There the guest was met by the gray-haired commander of the ship.
The visitor identified himself.
"We've been wanting to see you for a long time," the commander said, shaking the guest's hand. - So, have you received our letter, Comrade Belyshev?
He invited him inside the ship.
The guest spent the whole day on board the cruiser-school, examined the nooks and crannies of the engine room, and quite surprised the Nakhimovites with his excellent knowledge of their ship. Watching a stranger in civilian clothes, they surmised to each other that the guest must have once served on the Aurora. The guess was confirmed. In the evening, when the pupils gathered in the spacious room of the ship's club, the commander introduced the guest to them:
- Comrades Nakhimovites! Among us there is an honorary Aurorovets Alexander Viktorovich Belyshev. He will tell about the greatest historical events that took place on the cruiser Aurora in 1917. Now you will learn from a participant in these events why the day when the people took power into their own hands is the ship's holiday of our cruiser. This is a high honor, which was awarded to only two ships: the Red Banner
"Aurora" and the battleship "October Revolution" ... I give the floor to Comrade Belyshev.
great initiative
This time is buzzing
telegraph string.
This
a heart
with the truth together.
It was
about the fighters
or country
or
in the heart
It was
in my.
V. Mayakovsky
February 1917 is gloomy in Petrograd. A short rainy day fades, not having time to flare up. The damp haze, thickening, envelops the upper floors of city buildings all night long, creeps under the humpbacked bridges of frozen canals, along the wide clearings of extinct avenues, spreads on the slippery granite of the embankments of the Neva, Moika, Fontanka. Mornings are like evening twilight. Wet windows of houses gleam dully. Not a single light in the windows and street lamps. From time to time, an empty tram rumbles by, rattles in the pipes of drains, pieces of ice eroded by dampness, falling
an icicle falls from the eaves onto the pavement, crumbles into a thousand spray-needles, they crunch under the feet of a passer-by - and again silence, so unusual in the workers' quarters near the Moscow and Narva outposts, on the Vyborg side and on the outskirts of the Kolomensky district, near the commercial port.
Peter is on strike.
At the entrance booth of the Franco-Russian shipbuilding and ship repair plant, chilled people huddle against the gates: delegates of the striking workers of the Kolomna region. They were sent to the sailors of the cruiser "Aurora", moored at the berth of the factory harbor.
Two of them - sedate, gray-whiskered - bicker in an undertone with an old acquaintance - the watchman Ignatych. The watchman persuades the delegates to go home before it's too late. Otherwise, they will catch the eye of the guard officer. He will not beg: he will arrest, so the conversation is over. Still can't get on the ship. The road to it is through the factory yard, and the factory has been guarded since the evening by the combined infantry battalion of the Semyonovsky and Keksholmsky regiments. The battalion is subordinate to the commander of the cruiser, captain of the first rank Nikolsky.
The third delegate - in a soldier's overcoat without a strap - clung to the gap between the doors. Through the gap one can see mounds of stale snow in a cluttered yard, dirty workshop buildings, a square harbor bound by ice, above it is a gray block crowned with three huge pipes, higher than factory roofs: the cruiser Aurora. Near the gangway, lowered from the stern of the ship to the quay wall, the watchman stands motionless. Every minute blocking it, a soldier with a rifle on his shoulder walks past the gap.
- They walk, trample... - the man in the overcoat grumbles. - And you can't see the naval ones. Oh, if only they helped! ..
- "Oh, if only"! .. - Hearing his grumbling, the watchman mimics. - Naval now from the ship, no, no. And they are not allowed into the shop. The commander forbade it.
- He does not rely, then, on the sailors, - one of the gray-whiskered delegates guesses.
- That's why they demanded Semenovdev, - adds the second. - Faithful servants of the king. In the fifth year, Moscow was flooded with blood, and now they are getting to us.
“Maybe so,” the watchman agrees, “but I only heard from the soldiers that they would arrest someone, they were ordered to take everyone to the cruiser, to the punishment cell. So I say in a good way: take your feet.
The delegates frown.
- You're talking empty, Ignatych! - the man in the overcoat responds. - The navy will not go against the people. Our life is like a dog's, and theirs is not at all ... We talked with their machinists in the shop. People in the manner of newborns: they did not know anything, swimming in the sea. Gentlemen, they buried the truth, but now the sailors' eyes are open ...
A push in the back interrupts the man in the overcoat.
The gates creak as an infantry officer on duty passes. Soldiers appear behind him, guns at the ready.
Are you campaigning, my dear? - sarcastically copes with the officer. - Take! And these. - He points to the grey-whiskered workers.
Surrounding the delegates, the soldiers take them to the factory yard.
In the foggy darkness, the figure of the watchman at the entrance booth blackens lonely.
Silence.
The door connecting the engine room with the propeller shaft corridor is ajar. Near her, listening attentively to the silence, stands a man in an oiled blouse. He holds a turned piece in front of him and, without looking, runs a piece of rag over it. The man's gaze is directed upwards, to the web of ladders, to the exit from the engine room to the middle deck.
Portable electric lamps, hanging from ladders, dimly illuminate the dismantled car. Everywhere there is disorder and dirt, the cold of metal blows, shapeless shadows pile up.
"Aurora" under major repairs.
For the fourth month, frozen cables hold the ship against the wall. Wriggling, electric cables stretch through the factory yard to the living decks: the current is supplied from the shore, because the ship's dynamo is inactive. The main machines and auxiliary mechanisms were destroyed, the fires in the furnaces were extinguished; only the boiler was left in operation, supplying heat to the steam heating pipes. The appearance of the cruiser is also unsightly. The paint on the sides has peeled off. In some places, square holes gape in place of the sheets removed for replacement. Stripes of blackened snow are visible on the yards and the mars platform. The upper deck is dirty, as if after coal loading. From morning until dusk, blacksmith forges smoke on it, layering soot. On the arbors lowered overboard, factory boilermen swarm, fractionally drill the hull and drive rivets into it. Locksmiths, turners, ship's machinists, stokers scurry along the steep ladders. They are indistinguishable from each other - they look like twins: yesterday's artisans, now sailors of the engine crew of the Aurora cruiser, and workers of the machine shop of the Franco-Russian Plant.
The ship lives with the usual fuss after three months of repairs. And suddenly the strike breaks everything. Horns go out, do not hear the fractional knock of pneumatic hammers. Deserted on the berths, cold at the flagpole1 on the stern of the watchman.
1 Flagstaff - a pole to the top of which a flag is attached.
And in a cozy cabin, the commander of the Aurora, captain of the first rank Nikolsky, shouts at the representatives of the factory administration. Representatives are justified. It's not about a penny beating. They agree to shut the mouths of slaves with a nickel, but the strike is political. It covers the largest enterprises in the country. The police are powerless. Take action, Mr. Nikolsky, the word is yours... Do not forget that it was the commander of the Petrograd Military District who ordered you to crush the strike in the Kolomensky district adjacent to the plant by any means.
And Nikolsky acts. He forbids the crew to go ashore - not only to the city, but even to the workshops where the ship's machinists helped the mechanics repair the parts removed from the ship - and hurries to demand several companies of the Semyonovsky regiment to the factory territory. There is little hope for the Kexholm soldiers: they are in favor of the striking workers. Hurries up the report of senior officer Ogranovich. The senior officer reports that they managed to find out through spies - the ship's priest Pokrovsky and the boatswain1 Serov: the team is in favor of the strikers.
1 boatswain - assistant boatswain. The boatswain is the senior sailor on the ship.
Three months of communication with the shore played a role: the sailors are aware of the events taking place in the country, and will not pacify the workers ... For the hundredth time, annoyed that the war made it possible for a greater number of artisans to enter the service of the fleet than expected, Ogranovich says that the machine command is completely unreliable. The commander does not share all the fears of the senior officer. He is confident in the habit of sailors to obey, does not want to consider the sailors subordinate to him as people, and explains the mood of the sailors only by the influence of the striking workers. This zealous servant of the sworn enemies of the people does not see and, like Ogranovich, does not understand the main thing: the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, including the crew of the cruiser "Aurora", not only do not want to follow the orders of the authorities and pacify the striking workers, but have long been ready for revolutionary actions against the common enemy of the working people - against the class of capitalists and landlords. For several years, underground revolutionary organizations have existed on many ships. All of them are part of the main Kronstadt collective of the military organization of the Bolshevik Party. They operate under the leadership of the Central and Petrograd Committees of the Bolshevik Party, prepare Baltic sailors for a general armed uprising, and carry out revolutionary work in the navy on the instructions of V. I. Lenin and J. V. Stalin.
Denying the sailors of the cruiser the right to human dignity, Nikolsky does not intend to reckon with the mood of the crew. By his order, the soldiers bring to the ship the people arrested at the entrance booth and hand them over to Serov, boatswain.
The boatswain pushes the workers into the punishment cell, but does not have time to do it unnoticed by the sailors.
The bolt rattles, and, like a bell of a loud battle, the indignant voice of the sailor Osipenko flies around the cockpit:
- Aurora is being turned into a floating prison!
Serov nods at the sailor and suddenly sees in front of him a multitude of eyes kindled with indignation. Turning white, he rushes to Ogranovich's cabin, accompanied by furious cries:
- Scammer!
- A ship is not a prison! Do not be this!
We are sailors, not jailers!
- Do not let go - we will free ourselves!
- Dispersing to the cockpit, the sailors for the first time without fear, publicly recall much that the memory has accumulated during the years of their service in the tsarist fleet. Is it possible to forget the injury of the machinist Popov, who was beaten by the non-commissioned officer Pishchalnikov, or the story of the stoker Orlovsky! From a blow to the ear, the driver's eardrum burst, and the non-commissioned officer escaped by receiving a reduced salary for five months. Sergeant major Tebenkov brutally beat the stoker, but the senior officer Ogranovich, who patronized Tebenkov, managed to turn the case so that Orlovsky was put on trial and sentenced to a year in prison ... for "beating" the sergeant major!
There is nothing to seek protection from the commander and senior officer. They both set an example for non-commissioned officers.
The cup of patience is overflowing. Whose face does not burn from slaps, from bitter resentment for the vile humiliations invented by Ogranovich and his henchmen! The sailor's bill is long. Time multiplies it.
Cubes are noisy:
- Belyshev! Where is Belyshev?
The ship's carpenter Timofey Lipatov does not leave the platform of the middle deck, but rolls into the engine room.
Drivers surround him.
- What happened, brother?
Lipatov tells about the events upstairs.
The hot-tempered southerner Minakov throws the file at the wall with all his might:
- Enough!
Someone's palm, smelling of metal and grease, is covering the driver's mouth.
- Do not boil! - pulling his hand away, a lean, very young man, of small stature, in a blue robe1 and a cap pulled down over his big ears, gently reasoned with Minakov. - Just hoarse to no avail.
Minakov is trembling with excitement.
- Belyshev! Shura! he almost moans. - How long can you endure? What were the gentlemen thinking?
- And we will think of our own, - Belyshev answers coldly.
Drivers come close to him.
- Tell me, Shura, what to do?
They are waiting, ready for anything, never taking their eyes off the man recognized as the leader of the machine team - friends, comrades, people of different trades, but of the same class, proletarians who have nothing to lose but chains.
1 Sailors call work clothes robes.
Three years ago, the roads converged and the friendship of a turner of a textile factory in Nerekhta Belyshev, a Ural miner Nevolin, an Odessa ship repairer Minakov, a locksmith Krasnov from Vyazniki, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ivanovo artisans - Lukichev, Babin, Khabereva, Belov, Starinov and Foteev, who were mobilized into the fleet before the war. They brought with them to the cockpits, to the bottom of the holds of the engine and boiler rooms, hatred for the predatory war started by the capitalists and landowners, for police arbitrariness and scuffle, legalized in the tsarist fleet. And the sailors jealously protect their leaders from the spies of the senior officer.
Two people do not appear on the list of politically unreliable Aurors: among the combatants on the upper deck there is a master carpenter, a stocky Tambovite Timofei Lipatov, and below, in stuffy boxes of cars and stokers, is a hereditary turner Alexander Belyshev.
- Kostya, - Belyshev addresses the bilge engineer Starinov, - run for Ivanov. Taking a candle out of his pocket, he lights it. - Go to the tunnel, comrades! On the face of it, it's not good to interpret. You, Alexey, - he punishes Minakov, - look after the ladder. Just a click.
The machinists and Lipatov dive in single file into the corridor of the propeller shaft. As soon as the tunnel absorbs them, breathless Starinov and electrician Ivanov run into the engine room.
Minakov waves at the tunnel door. The electrician, surprised, climbs there after Starinov. The tunnel is tight. Crackling, fuming candle. Shadows dance on the damp walls. Engineers are squatting at the propeller shaft.
“To protest in words is to rage in vain,” Belyshev convinces. - Good arrested will not be released. What do you say, Timothy?
Lipatov is laconic:
- I vouch for the combatant's quarters. People boil. Serov the other day beat a man bloody again. Signalman Vedyakin. Unbearable!
Belyshev turns to the electrician:
- Do you remember what was discussed in the machine shop? Didn't change your mind? Are you taking it?
Ivanov nods in agreement.
- We talked about this, - Belyshev explains to others: - at the evening prayer, as the commander and others will come to the church deck, after the words: "... and bless your property" - first of all, cut the wires and in the dark deal with their nobility. Suitable?
The machinists and Lipatov approve.
- Do not give mercy to either the petty tyrant Nikolsky or the live-eater Ogranovich. Let's deal with them and release the factory ones.
- And then?
- Polundra! 1 - Minakov warns in a booming whisper.
1 Polundra! - Watch out!
Blowing out the candle, Belyshev leans over to Lipatov:
- Tell Alontsev to notify the radio operators. Warn Vekshin: it is convenient for him, as a messenger, let him see Bakhmurtsev. I'll go down to Marushkin's stoker-house later.
- I'll pass it on, Shura.
Lipatov silently gets out of the tunnel and barely has time to slip under the ladder to the emergency exit.
- Truly, you are found in the underworld! - is heard over the heads of the drivers.
- Long-maned bacon! Minakov mutters with hatred.
The iron ladder, shaking, rings under the pressure of heels.
The ship's priest Pokrovsky descends into the engine room - Ogranovich's right hand in supervising the crew. Putting his plump fingers together with a pinch, he sweepingly crosses the dismantled mechanisms and suspiciously examines the drivers.
The sailors have been in place for a long time. Everyone is busy with their own business. Crickets sing files in deft hands, hammers knock.
Refurbishment in full swing.
Stuffy in the cubicle. Frosty air from the fan is not refreshing. The bunks stretched out by the ceiling are empty. Drivers sit around the table.
The guitar strums sadly, the machinist Bragin sings mournfully:
...Corpses wander in the sea-wide,
The waves carry them green.
Hands tied with elbows to back
Faces are covered with tar bags,
Black blood stained uniform -
These are sailors from Kronstadt...
“They will do the same with them,” Bragin assures.
The sailors are silent.
... In the gray fog, the border of the banks of the Low Ridge is drawn;
There, the Royal Palace of Peterhof flaunts over the water ...
Where are you, king? Show yourself, come out To us from under strong protection!
Do you see what bloody wounds in each chest gape? ..
With a sad look, Minakov looks around the cockpit, leaning against the wall near the door of Belyshev and Lukichev, swears long and hysterically.
The song is depressing.
...Corpses float through the Gulf of Finland,
Wrapped in gray mist...
Sobbing in every way, the guitar falls silent. It was Belyshev who snatched her from Bragin's hands.
- Do not irritate the hearts of people and do not make non-commissioned officers: they snoop around and around, in compartments1 and on deck!
- One end. We all keep watch, where the lads lie - Potemkin, Ochakov, Azov ... 2
Lukichev looks at Bragin with contemptuous regret:
- What are you whining about? The gentlemen found themselves between two fires. Let's wait for the morning - we'll see on whose side the force is.
- Let's wait ... how Osipenko waited!
Engineers bow their heads even lower: there is nothing more bitter than the thought of defeat. And do not erase from the memory of events that occurred unexpectedly, unexpectedly, just a few hours ago.
... Shortly before the evening prayer, at the time of which the uprising was timed, armed officers appeared in the residential decks, headed by Ogranovich. Accompanied by the conductors3, they went around the cockpits and, having frightened the sailors, threatening sooner or later to deal with the instigators, returned to the wardroom.
It became clear: the plan of the uprising had been issued. Too many people knew about him - almost the whole team.
Still, Nikolsky decided not to play with fire.
As soon as Ogranovich and his retinue left, gunnery 4 Evdokim Ognev burst into the engine room:
- Take away! The arrested are being taken away!
1 Compartment - one or another part of the ship, separated from others by watertight bulkheads (walls).
2 Gak was the name given to sailors from the battleship Potemkin and the cruisers Ochakov and Pamyat Azov, who rebelled against tsarism in 1905. The uprisings were crushed, and many of their participants were executed.
3 Conductor - an assistant officer in some specific ship specialty.
4 Commander - artilleryman.
Having crushed the cordon of non-commissioned officers, the sailors rushed to the ladders on the upper deck. Indeed, on the ice of the harbor, three people could be seen in the ring of soldiers: the Semyonovites were taking the working delegation to the city.
A voiceless cry soared over the ship:
- Hooray! Ours took!
Combat sailor Osipenko, clenching his fists, rushed to the stern, where officers and conductors crowded around Nikolsky. A wave rushed there after the sailors of the boatswain team, stokers, electricians, machinists, gunners. And immediately, in the frosty air, shots burst abruptly.
As if thrown back by an invisible pressure, the sailors leaned back. Belyshev jumped behind the gun - this saved him. Plast collapsed, arms outstretched, and Osipenko froze forever. The driver Fokin, like a blind man, scurried from side to side and, finding no escape from bullets, threw himself from a height of five sazhens onto the ice of the harbor. Leaving a trail of blood behind him, the machinist Vlasenko hobbled to the vestibule. He was picked up by Babin and Lipatov.
Volleys began to fire from the pier: at a signal from Nikolsky, a company of Semenovites opened fire. Bullets rained down on the deck, chipping the paint off the superstructures.
Belyshev, bending over, ran across to the ladder and jumped down to where the machinists were fussing over the groaning Vlasenko. Having torn his vest into pieces, Lukichev tightly bandaged the leg of the wounded man. Vlasenko fell silent.
The sound of a trumpet cut through the silence: the bugler called the team to the parade gathering. The ship's wheel continued to turn.
The sailors grimly obeyed.
Standing next to Belyshev in the ranks, Nevolin pushed his neighbor and imperceptibly glanced at the bridges.
From there, the machine guns pointed by the conductors looked at the sailors.
- Line up in mouths! - Unter commanded.
The sailors of the engine crew obediently took their places in the line.
It was getting dark. Evening prayer time was running out. The people were frozen in the freezing wind. Belyshev and Lukichev supported the exhausted Vlasenko with their shoulders.
It was completely dark when the commander and senior officer got out of the stern vestibule. Flashing, the thin beam of a pocket flashlight glided along the numb formation. A two-hour search of the ship's nooks and crannies and sailors' lockers ended in nothing. Neither agitators from the shore, whose presence Nikolsky suspected, nor forbidden literature were found. There were no strangers in the ranks.
- Disperse! - ordered Ogranovich.
- Take the beds! yelled the boatswains.
Under the gunpoint of machine guns, the sailors returned to the living decks. Doors shut tightly from the outside rattled. The machine guns on the bridges became the most reliable of the conductors.
The day was over. For the first time in the history of the Aurora cruiser, the traditional evening prayer did not take place.
Night fell, full of uncertainty and doubt, an oppressive silence hung in the cockpit.
Nobody closes their eyes. Everyone thinks about one thing: is Bragin really right, promising reprisals and death instead of happiness and joy? ..
- Do not bury ahead of time! - Khaberev boils up, staring angrily at Bragin. - Just now, the combatants, returning from the crew, what did they transmit? All Peter is on strike. No one wants to suffer for the master's war! A full calculation suits the tsar, and what are you prophesying for us? .. Lukichev noticed exactly: between two fires, gentlemen. We will scare them from here, and the working class - from the shore!
- You'll be scared when they placed machine guns against the vestibules! - Bragin snarls dejectedly. - Sunxia!
- And let's go, let me come to my senses! Babin answers. - You think you missed once, so let's let off steam? We are now supposed to maintain high pressure. Podshuruy, Matvey, drive to the mark!
Belyshev says:
- There is nowhere to retreat. You know what they say in the shops: the workers are waiting for our support. They can't survive without us, and we can't survive without them. The commander with factory gendarmes will break, he will take over the Aurora. Nikolsky and Ogranovich will not have mercy on us for what happened yesterday, for instilling fear in their nobility. Whom did the gentlemen pardon when they took over? Are there few sailors on the seabed, on the Fox Nose? Few of our comrades were exiled to hard labor, disappeared in prisons? Well, should we climb into the noose, waiting for the rope to be lathered? .. Bragin, tell me what you choose: machine guns or a noose?
- Death is one.
- You're lying! - objected Belyshev. - Draped around the neck, pulled up - you can’t jump out of the noose, but you can take possession of the machine guns. Today, together, the whole team.
The machinists, perking up, assent.
During the night, the decision was made: at the first opportunity to capture the machine guns.
The same thing happens in other cubicles.
Exhausted from uncertainty and impatience, the cruiser is waiting for the bugler's signal, which will herald a wake-up call. Nobody sleeps. No rest for thoughts. And time, as if on purpose, stopped. As if a lifetime is not enough to wait for the dawn.
Excruciatingly long last hour...
The bugler begins to play the wake-up signal when the predawn haze is still blackening in the portholes.
- To prayer! - they call, having opened the doors, non-commissioned officers and boatswains.
The day has begun. Through a line of armed conductors stationed in the corridors, five hundred and sixty-seven people who make up the crew of the cruiser, one after another, cross the threshold of the church deck.
Stomping with boots, a pop is selected from behind the screen of the camping altar. His shifting gaze is turned either to the chain of conductors behind the sailors, or to the door, from where the commander and senior officer should appear at any moment.
One by one squeeze through the ranks of mechanics, midshipmen, lieutenants. Each of them is on guard.
- Break out! - the senior boatswain buzzes in an undertone.
The sailors disengage.
Nikolsky and Ogranovich are walking quickly to their places.
The commander nods to Pokrovsky on the move.
The hasty muttering of the priest is barely audible in the closeness of the church deck. The pungent smell of sweat overrides the sweet smell of incense and the scent of First Lieutenant Erickson's expensive perfume.
Pokrovsky mutters the words of a prayer in a patter, and suddenly, as if having forgotten, he stumbles.
Lukichev winks at Belyshev at the commander.
Nikolsky's cheek twitches.
The officers' hands reach for their unbuttoned holsters.
Ogranovich, shrugging his shoulder, squints at the team.
The sailors are motionless.
Urged on by the commander's evil gaze, Pokrovsky cautiously squeezes out the words that should have served as a signal for an uprising last night:
- .. And bless your wealth ...
Having hastily finished reading the prayer, he hides behind the screen of the altar.
Looking over the sailor's heads, Nikolsky announces:
- The whole team, although today is not Saturday, wash the paint! I will teach you to rebel!
Breaking off, he leaves.
The senior officer gives a sign to non-commissioned officers and boatswains.
Those bred sailors in compartments.
Serov's boatswain's squad is the last to march. He was entrusted with the corridors of the officers' quarters and the wardroom.
- You must understand that there is a riot in wartime. For such deeds, your brother is covered with a tarpaulin and written off as an expense,” Serov intimidates. - Name, guys, the instigators. I will report to his nobility, and you will be completely forgiven.
The sailors keep quiet, listening to the irritated squeal of Ogranovich, which comes from the wardroom.
The boatswain hastily closes the door.
- The elder priest scolds for prayer, - whispers, running past the combatant, the messenger Vekshin.
- Dmitriev! - calls the boatswain, noticing a smile on the face of one of the sailors. - What are you rocking? March to wash the bathroom! Laugh there!
The sailor takes a bucket of caustic and goes to the officer's bathroom.
There is no one in it.
He looks out the side window and sticks to it.
The twilight morning still struggles with the night. Wide open gates gape like a black gap behind the platform of the factory yard. Crowds of people move from them to the pier. Every moment they are getting closer to the Aurora. The undershirts of the workers were mixed with the overcoats of the soldiers of the Kexholm regiment. Ahead, carrying a red flag, the old watchman Ignatych minces.
Dmitriev noisily unscrews the porthole knobs.
A stream of fresh air breaks into the musty closeness of the room.
The calls are rising:
- Soldiers with us, and you, sailors?
- Hurray for the Aurors! - is distributed at the side.
- Hooray! - Dmitriev shouts at the top of his lungs and, groaning from the unbearable pain in his back, instantly turns around.
The boatswain, cursing, pokes a silver pipe - for long service - in the teeth of the sailor and, pushing him away, slams the porthole.
- What are you? To the punishment cell!..
Not having finished, having received a heavy blow with his fist, he sits down heavily on a stool by the bathroom.
The sailor slaps a bucket of caustic caustic solution on the boatswain's head.
- Here's your change, Judas!
He rips a revolver out of Serov's holster and, slamming the door, jumps out into the corridor.
Sailors run from everywhere. Echoes keep repeating in the long corridors:
- Urrraaaa!..
At the threshold of the wardroom, a squealing senior officer blocks Dmitriev's path. Convulsively clinging to the door, Ogranovich tries to escape from the hands of the orderly Vekshin and the machine owner Foteev.
- Look, boar! You feel sorry for yourself, but who shot Osipenko? the sailor asks sternly. - Step back, guys, so as not to hurt you inadvertently.
He takes aim at Ogranovich.
- Do not touch! - shouts Vekshin. - Don't mess up the deck! Let's take it to the ice!
- That's right, just don't miss it! - Dmitriev warns and, squeezing the handle of the revolver, hurries to the upper deck.
The whole team is already there. Both bridges are full of sailors. Machine guns captured at the moment when
the conductors turned them to the pier to open fire on the working soldiers of the Kexholm regiment. Caught off guard at morning tea, the officers were led out of the wardroom onto the aft deck. The disarmed guard of the Semenovites is surrounded by machinists. Sailors shame soldiers.
- Look out, bro! Lukichev warns.
An enraged Nikolsky runs out of the stern vestibule.
Lukichev, contriving, knocks the Browning out of his hand.
- Reclaimed, your honor! - Babin taunts, picking up a revolver. - Commanded, get down. Nikolsky stunnedly turns his head.
Several hands reach for his epaulettes.
- Do not dare! - He's shaking with rage. Sailors, I order you to disperse! Don't dishonor the fleet!
- Shut up! Lipatov replies angrily. - Not we, but people like you, disgraced the fleet at Tsushima!
Bragin, grabbing Nikolsky by the shoulders, rips off his shoulder straps:
- Go!
Nikolsky balks. The sailors push him onto the ladder.
The messenger and engine keeper are dragged onto the deck of Ogranovich.
The senior officer hoarsely begs for mercy.
- You spared us? Dmitriev leans towards him. - Did you pardon Osipenko? Get to count!
He lifts Ogranovich by the collar and pulls him off the ship onto the ice.
Two shots are fired in a row.
- Comrades! - the grey-whiskered turner, the chairman of the strike committee of the Franco-Russian factory, addresses the sailors. - Cars are hidden in the shed behind the machine shop. Director's. We would like to fit a couple of machine guns on them. We ask all the people: borrow until we manage with the policemen and gendarmes. They sat down, scoundrels, in the attics near the Haymarket and do not allow either passage or passage for people.
- Get the cars out, father! Let's swim together. We have one road, - Belyshev says to the approval of all the sailors. - Let the gentlemen know who we are with, let them remember the Aurora!
Lipatov removes from the pole, taken from the watchman, a piece of kerchief and ties it with the strongest sea knot to the halyards1 of the mainmast2.
Sailors, workers, and Kexholm soldiers unanimously take up the halyards.
A minute later, the red flag of the revolution flies victoriously over the Aurora cruiser.
1 Halyards - thin ropes used to raise signals.
2 Main mast - the second mast on the ship, counting from the bow.
This happened at dawn on February 26, 1917, on the eve of the memorable day when the Russian people forever put an end to the tsarist autocracy.
There was still a long way to the socialist revolution ahead.
Conversation in Smolny
There is! -
turned around
and disappeared soon
only
on tape
at the naval
under the lamp
flashed:
- Aurora.
V. Mayakovsky
More than seven months have passed, and there is no change for the better. The end of October, but the situation of the people is no easier than before the February revolution. The war started by the landowners and capitalists under the tsar continues under the Provisional Government of Kerensky. She devours everything. Even Petrograd, then the capital of Russia, ran out of grain. Thousands of hungry children and women wait in line day and night when the bakery doors open and are lucky enough to receive a beggarly ration: a quarter pound of sticky, like putty, bread per capita.
No urine to endure any longer.
- Sons! Sailors! - they call from the queue at the bread shop on Suvorovsky Prospekt, not far from Smolny.
Two sailors walking in step near the panel slow down. Rifles shine in the rain. Pea jackets hung with bandoliers swollen from dampness. On wet peakless caps, the name of the ship known to all of Petrograd turns yellow: "Aurora".
An exhausted woman rushes from the queue to the sailors.
- What do you say, mother? - good-naturedly asks one of them.
The woman sobs. Raindrops, like tears, crawl down her cheeks.
- The third day without bread ... My children will die of hunger ... When will our torment end? - In a sobbing voice, she shouts out: - Will you soon take the bourgeoisie and speculators by the throat?
A swarthy, stocky sailor clenched his fists and, slightly eyeing, said with quiet fury:
“Hold on just a little longer, mother. Now soon. Here's how to talk to them!
He slams his fist on the rifle and adjusts the sling with a familiar movement of his shoulder.
- Full speed ahead, Shura! I am burning to help with words - I am more likely to irritate myself ... Oh, mother!
The woman looks after the sailors for a long time.
They pass a chain of armed workers and soldiers guarding the approaches to the Smolny Institute at the crossroads, in the building of which the Military Revolutionary Committee is located, and soon merge with the crowd at the gates of the main entrance, where, over a continuous stream of people, red banners with slogans of the Bolshevik Party fly:
ALL POWER TO THE ADVICE!
PEACE TO THE PEOPLES!
* * *
A sentry in a black wadded undershirt and a polished cap - a Red Guard worker - returns the passes to the sailors and opens the door to the room of the Military Revolutionary Committee:
- Come on, comrades of the fleet.
Stepping over the threshold, the sailors put their rifles in a corner
and are looked at.
The room looks like a ship's navigation cabin. On its walls are full of maps of fronts and plans of all districts of Petrograd. Across from the door, at the back of the room, is a table covered with a map. Behind him, a thin man in a leather jacket rises, adjusting his pince-nez. He quickly goes towards the sailors.
- Where, comrades? .. However, your business cards are on peakless caps. On what business, comrade Aurors?
- They arrived at the call of the Military Revolutionary Committee to Comrade Sverdlov! - reports a lean, short sailor.
“I am Sverdlov,” the man in pince-nez calls himself. - Who authorized you?
- The crew of the cruiser "Aurora", Comrade Sverdlov. Once received your call.
And a short sailor holds out a neatly folded document.
1 Navigator's cabin - a room from which the ship is controlled during navigation.
Sverdlov reads:
"... that the chairman of the ship's committee of the cruiser "Aurora" mine engineer Alexander Belyshev and a member of the ship's committee, the hold engineer Nikolai Lukichev, were sent by a team meeting to Smolny in response to the call of the Military Revolutionary Committee ... "
- Have a seat.
Return to your place, Sverdlov asks an unexpected question:
- Who is the most authoritative person on the cruiser?
- Yes, here is Belyshev, - the swarthy, stocky Lukichev points to a neighbor. - We chose him as the chairman on the ship and in Tsentrobalt1.
1 Tsentrobalt - the Bolshevik-led Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet, which included representatives of all ships.
Inquisitively studying Belyshev's face, Sverdlov inquires:
- What are your political views, comrade?
- Member of the RSDLP Bolsheviks. On the first of March, three of us signed up: Lukichev, Timofey Lipatov and myself.
- I know Timofey Lipatov. This is the representative of "Aurora" in the military organization of our party. Reliable friend. So how many sailors are on the cruiser?
- Five hundred sixty-seven.
- Of them members of our party?
- Thirty two.
What about the mood of others? - asks Sverdlov.
- The majority of the team is for us, - Belyshev reports. - In the court committee, one is non-partisan, one is an anarchist, the rest are Bolsheviks.
“There are, of course, some who whine in the corners,” Lukichev adds briskly. - Who does not like revolutionary discipline, who misunderstood life and freedom. Together, as they say, we tighten the nuts. Yes, just now, on Obvodny, we see: Babushkin - our driver - is walking, but he is not dressed in uniform. Belyshev told him heart to heart: “Why are you, brother, serving the bourgeoisie? To point fingers at you and mock us? .. This very minute to the ship! Realized the man. Today, at a meeting in front of the whole team, he asked for forgiveness ... - Lukichev catches on: - I was a little distracted. Not about Babushkina conversation now.
“And about him,” Sverdlov says separately. - This is extremely important. Revolutionary discipline will help to defeat the enemies of the people. You have probably read what tales are printed in the cadet and compromising newspapers about you - the sailors from the Aurora?
- We are sitting in the liver of the bourgeoisie! - grinning, Lukichev responds. - Because in February they supported the working class, helped the people to overthrow the tsar.
Sverdlov looks expectantly at Belyshev:
- I will ask you to inform me in more detail about the situation on your ship.
Having unbuttoned his pea coat, the chairman of the ship's committee takes out a bundle of protocols and resolutions.
- Here is the command's decision: "The working class can always count on the support of the revolutionary fleet in the fight against enemies inside and outside."
- This resolution was published in Pravda. I read it, - explains Sverdlov.
Belyshev hides the papers and decisively declares:
- The team is on the side of the Bolsheviks. We will carry out any order of the Military Revolutionary Committee.
- The Military Revolutionary Committee has no doubts about it. What do your officers think?
Lukichev laughs:
- They get sick ... The bear disease has stuck to them. Since February, they have been sitting in city apartments every now and then. Whatever you say, they seem to read a prayer: "We keep neutrality, we are out of politics and do not interfere in anything."
“They are all quiet for the time being,” Belyshev drops with restraint. - When Kornilov was moving towards Peter, in order to put the tsar on our neck again, they suddenly came to life. I had to bluntly warn: if you stick your head in - blame yourself. They quieted down again. And now, when it’s not necessary, they run to the ship’s committee for every trifle. They lost themselves and still can not find themselves.
- So, the ship's committee is actually the commander of the ship?
Both sailors confirm.
Sverdlov leans over the map spread out on the table and runs his finger along the blue snake of the river.
The sailors closely follow the movement of his finger.
“The Central Committee of our party,” Sverdlov says slowly, as if dictating, “entrusted the Military Revolutionary Committee with the practical leadership of the armed uprising of the Petrograd workers and the garrison. Procrastination is like death - these are the words of Comrade Lenin. We Bolsheviks must take state power into our own hands. Otherwise, the Provisional Government, with the bayonets of the junkers, will deal a mortal blow to the revolution. Leadership in one sector or another of the insurrection will be carried out by one person - a commissar appointed by us from the composition of the units themselves ... Do you share the point of view of the Central Committee?
Belyshev does not hesitate:
- Yes, Comrade Sverdlov.
- Correctly! - Lukichev joins. Our whole life is at stake.
“The Military Revolutionary Committee and its party center, headed by Comrade Stalin,” Sverdlov finishes, “authorized me to appoint an Aurora commissar.” Your candidacy, comrade Belyshev, is very successful. You are a Bolshevik, invested with the full confidence of the sailors, elected by the team to the post of chairman of the ship's committee, and the ship's committee is the real owner of the cruiser.
Belyshev's face turns a little pink:
- I consider the party's decision an order.
- Your name and patronymic?
- Alexander Victorovich.
- Comrade Lipatov will be your deputy. Do you have anything against it?
- Suitable, - Belyshev responds with satisfaction.
- Quite, - Lukichev also confirms.
Pulling out a desk drawer, Sverdlov takes out a form with a stamp and, filling it out, reads aloud what he writes:
- Mandate. Given to a sailor Comrade Belyshev Alexander Viktorovich, Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee on the cruiser "Aurora".
The commissar is authorized to dispose of the cruiser and acts only on the instructions of the Military Revolutionary Committee.
Sverdlov signs the mandate and, handing it to Belyshev, instructs both sailors:
- Consider that the Provisional Government in these decisive days will make every possible attempt to remove the "Aurora" from Petrograd.
“Yesterday they wanted to send us out,” recalls Lukichev. - The commander brought Kerensky's order: "Aurora" to go out for a test of machines on the twenty-second.
- We asked Tsentrobalt, - adds Belyshev, - and received the answer: "Try to produce the twenty-fifth."
- Understandably. - Sverdlov smiles with his eyes: - The opening of the Congress of Soviets is scheduled for the twenty-fifth. However, you must not be bound by numbers... However, for the time being, refer to this order of Tsentrobalt and do not obey any orders of Kerensky. We will warn the comrades from Tsentrobalt. Wait for an official telegram from there without any cipher: to stay in Petrograd and follow only our instructions. Explain to the team that the Military Revolutionary Committee instructs the cruiser "Aurora" to protect the security of the opening All-Russian Congress of Soviets from the provocations of the Provisional Government. When you receive a written order from the Military Revolutionary Committee to speak out, then announce to the team and officers that you are a commissar. Then categorically warn the commander that any order given to them without your consent is invalid. Be on the lookout: the Aurora may have to climb up the Neva. Keep in touch with us and with the representative of the committee in the barracks of the Second Baltic Naval Crew.
- There is! We just need shells just in case. They were unloaded last year in Kronstadt, when they were docked, Belyshev warns. - After all, the ship is in a repair position. Although the repair is completed, the machines have not been cranked and tested. So we need tugboats to leave the factory harbor and escort us to the new anchorage. And then you can’t take out boats and boats. Not without tugs.
- Good. - Sverdlov makes a note in a notebook. - The Kronstadters will provide you with tugboats and shells. By the way, how many boats do you have?
- Two steam.
- Do you really need them?
- No, but what? - not understanding what it is about, Belyshev is surprised.
- Will you be able to arm them with machine guns and guide them along the river - for example, here?
- To Smolny? Any minute. Machine guns are mounted on them. When are required?
“The sooner the better,” says Sverdlov, satisfied with the speed of the answer. - It is necessary to secure the Smolny from the side of the Neva.
- As soon as we return to the ship, we will send both boats, - Belyshev promises.
- Another important thing, comrades, - Sverdlov holds the rising sailors. - Today, the Military Revolutionary Committee has drawn up a letter for all army and navy units: both for those stationed in Petrograd and for those outside it. In the city, it is easy for us to familiarize ourselves with this letter: we are calling the commissars of the units here. It is more difficult with those who are in other places. In short, the Aurora radio station must be used immediately. Is she okay? Is the radio operator reliable?
- In good order, and I vouch for the senior radiotelegrapher Fedor Alontsev as for myself, - Belyshev confidently answers.
- Then here's a copy.
Sverdlov gives Belyshev a copy of the letter, reproduced on a hectograph.
The heads of the sailors bow to the letter. Its text is like a combat order:
“... Do not allow any military unit to enter Petrograd, about which it would not be known what position it has taken in relation to current events. Several dozen agitators should be sent to meet each unit, who should explain to them, on their way to Petrograd, that they want to incite them against the people.
The Kornilov echelons, if they do not obey the admonitions, must be detained by force. We must act strictly and cautiously and, where necessary, use force.
Report all movements of troops immediately to the Smolny Institute in Petrograd, to the Military Revolutionary Committee ... "
Lukichev looks excitedly at Sverdlov:
“So you really started?” That's right! But what if they don't hear our radio station?
- In vain you worry, Nikolay, - Belyshev calms down. - Now all radiotelegraph operators have ears on top of their heads. Will hear!
- Surely they will! - Sverdlov has no doubts and firmly shakes hands with the sailors: - Happy, comrades! Remember that the Central Committee and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin highly appreciate the role of Aurora in the coming events.
Deal with armored cars
Are they climbing?
Good.
Let's erase
into powder.
V. Mayakovsky
On the morning of the next day, the grey-whiskered turner - the chairman of the working committee of the Franco-Russian Plant - boards the Aurora, lovingly inspects the newly repaired ship, and then, having found Belyshev, quietly says to him:
- From Smolny they were ordered to transfer ... Three tugs and a barge with gifts for Kerensky left Kronstadt. By the evening they will be ... Do you complain about repairs?
- It's done to the conscience, - Belyshev reassures.
- How else? - The turner proudly strokes his mustache. - They tried for themselves. "Aurora" is our ship. The bourgeois are sick of her sight alone ... Well, I'll go to the shops. You tell the guys: let them keep their ears open. The Provisional Government has a huge grudge against your cruiser.
- Knock out a tooth, do not hesitate, father! - promises Belyshev, escorting the old man to the stern ladder. -
As for the junkers, be calm. Let them just visit! It is not supposed to gossip with uninvited guests. Rather, a treat would have sailed for them ... As a last resort, we will manage with rifles.
Before the intruders arrive, this is what happens.
At noon, when the tugboats and the barge with shells are still halfway between Kronstadt and the factory harbor, a meeting of the ship's committee is scheduled on the cruiser. At the meeting, as is customary, all sailors of the Aurora can attend.
In the middle of the room, which, out of long habit, is still easily called the church deck, Belyshev and a member of the ship's committee, carpenter Timofey Lipatov, are surrounded by a dense crowd. In a broken voice, Lipatov read to the team the appeal of the Military Revolutionary Committee, published in the Bolshevik newspaper Worker and Soldier, which had just been delivered to the ship:
- “Soldiers! Workers! Citizens!
The enemies of the people went on the offensive at night. The staff Kornilovites are trying to draw junkers and shock battalions from the vicinity... The campaign of counter-revolutionary conspirators is directed against the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the eve of its opening...
All the gains and hopes of the soldiers, workers and peasants are in great danger. But the forces of the revolution immeasurably exceed the forces of its enemies.
The cause of the people is in firm hands. The conspirators will be crushed.
No hesitation or doubt. Firmness, perseverance, endurance, determination.
Long live the revolution!.."
- Long live the revolution! - thunders under the iron vaults of ship compartments.
With a quick glance, Belyshev takes a look around the room crowded with sailors. Hundreds of people in peakless caps are excitedly discussing the appeal read by Lipatov.
Hundreds of voices merge into a rumble that does not stop for a second. The sailors are captivated by the events in which all of Petrograd lives on this alarming day: in Smolny and at the factories, in the Winter and Mariinsky palaces, in the barracks and on the streets, in the workers' quarters of the Vyborg side and at the shop windows of Nevsky Prospekt, colorful from many proclamations and appeals.
Separately, almost in the same place where they once lined up at prayers and masses, the current cruiser commander, Senior Lieutenant Erickson, and a group of officers stand out. On the face of the commander - concern, in the eyes - expectation. Some of the officers are pale, some are smiling ingratiatingly, others are arrogantly imperturbable.
However, no one neglected the invitation to come to the church deck - everyone came.
“I consider the emergency meeting open,” Belyshev announces, when members of the ship committee gather around him and Lipatov: the foreman of the signalmen Zakharov, the machinists Lukichev, Nevolim, the diver Belousov and the orderly Vekshin. - Here's the deal, comrades ... Listen to what the Military Revolutionary Committee orders: “The Petrograd Soviet is in direct danger: at night the counter-revolutionary conspirators tried to call junkers and shock battalions from the outskirts to Petrograd. The newspapers "Soldat" and "Working Way" are closed. It is ordered to bring the regiment to "combat readiness. Wait for further orders.
Any delay and confusion will be considered as a betrayal of the revolution ... "
The clang of the iron door above the entrance ladder drowns out Belyshev's last words.
Rumbling boots and the butt of a rifle down the steps, a soaked sailor descends into the room. He puts the rifle in an empty place in the pyramid at the entrance and makes his way to Belyshev.
It's connected. The chairman of the ship's committee sent him to the telegraph operators of the Naval General Staff with an order to obtain from them a resolution of the Tsentrobalt addressed to the Aurora.
- Under the very nose of the Kornilovites, I got it! - the messenger boasts, handing the telegram to Belyshev.
He shows it to the members of the ship's committee.
What's going on in the city! - exclaims the messenger. - Spit on a stone ... Kerensky ordered the junkers to seal the doors in the editorial offices of "Soldier" and "Working Way", and Red Guards, sappers and soldiers of the Lithuanian regiment rushed from Smolny in trucks. They tore off the seals from the doors, struck on the necks of the Junker sentries and other Kornilovites who came to hand, drove them away, put up their guards and went to close the bourgeois newspapers ... On the Marine soldier patrols stop all cars with bourgeois and offer the gentlemen to take a walk, and their cars are given to the Red Guards ... They are interested when we will set out and whether the Kronstadters will come soon ...
- So what are we waiting for? - Crimson with indignation, the quick-tempered Minakov asks.
- We'll start soon, - Lukichev assures. - Vote, chairman: "The order of the Military Revolutionary Committee to accept for immediate execution."
- I ask for words! - comes from where the officers stand, Erickson's voice.
Belyshev, members of the ship's committee and the entire crew look inquiringly at the senior lieutenant.
He is holding a leaf in his hand.
- I have a completely different order. I consider it necessary to bring it to the attention of all those present: “I order all units and command
let them stay in the barracks they occupy until they receive orders from the district headquarters. I forbid any independent performances. All officers who act outside the order of their superiors will be put on trial for armed rebellion. I categorically forbid the execution by the troops of any orders coming from various organizations. Colonel Polkovnikov, chief of the district of the General Staff… I hope you understand what this means? - asks the commander.
- For every sneeze you will not be congratulated! - Lipatov replies to the approving laughter of the meeting.
“We have an order from Tsentrobalt on Polkovnikov’s order,” Belyshev reports, raising the telegram brought by the messenger above his head. - Here it is: “The Aurora cruiser, the Amur minelayer, the Second Baltic crew, the guards crew and the Ezel team ... Tsentrobalt, together with the ship committees, decided: Aurora, the Amur minelayer, the Second Baltic and Guards crews and crew Ezel to fully obey the orders of the Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet.
- May I have a look? asks Erickson. - And on the telegram of Tsentrobalt and on the prescription.
Belyshev passes both documents to a neighbor, who - to the next. Having traveled through the entire meeting, the leaflets with the prescription of the Military Revolutionary Committee and the telegram of Tsentrobalt fall into the hands of Erickson.
The commander carefully examines them and suddenly declares aloud:
- Excuse me, excuse me... It says here: "To the Commissar and to the Aurora Regimental Committee." What kind of commissar is on a warship? No unauthorized representatives should be on board!
The officers look at each other meaningfully.
The assembly is puzzled. From different angles, provocative cries of those who have long been
a small minority on the cruiser - Socialist-Revolutionaries, Anarchists and Mensheviks:
- No controllers!
Why don't they trust us?
- We know these civilians!
- Chairman, protest! Or are you the chairman?
- And what about the judiciary committee? ...
Lukichev drums his fist on the table:
- Hush! .. And if not an outsider?
- Who? Are you Mikola?
The officers openly laugh.
Belyshev looks at them angrily and briefly throws them in the face:
- I'm the commissioner!
There is complete silence. He takes out a mandate signed by Sverdlov and hands it to the astonished sailors. Dozens of hands reach for the document.
Having visited everyone who is present at the meeting, the crumpled mandate returns to Belyshev.
- Clever! one of the officers remarks. - The Bolsheviks prepared in advance ... Don't put your finger in their mouth!
- Yes, I do not advise, - says Belyshev and, in turn, asks the commander: - I hope you understand what this means?
Erickson and the officers turn to leave.
- I warn you! - clearly pronounces after them the commissioner. - I warn the commander that any order given to them without my consent is invalid. Now I order: put the ship on alert!
Again the door clanging from the upper deck. Pushing the crowd aside, a sailor from the watch department makes his way to Belyshev:
- Chairman ... There the adjutant arrived from the naval minister. Demands to pass it to the commander. We ask why, he does not want to talk.
- In that case, turn it one hundred and eighty degrees and escort it to the gangway! - recommends the Mars boatswain Klevtsov.
- Nothing to stand on ceremony with him!
- Listened to gentlemen!
- Let it fail!
- Stop the noise! - calls Belyshev. - We will always find time to send the adjutant out. First, let's find out what he needs from the Aurora ... Do not leave the cockpit wide open. discipline and order.
Members of the ship's committee, and then the whole team, are selected to the upper deck.
From the black depths of the harbor it blows cold. Damp. The buildings of factory workshops, ship superstructures, towers of the Kalinkin bridge, buildings on both sides of the mouth of the Fontanka are blurry in the fog.
On the quarterdeck, at the gangway, a man in an officer's overcoat is arguing with a sentry ... On the smart boots, with every movement of the officer, the wheels of the spurs ring.
- Leave! - calmly commands Belyshev. - Take a semitone lower. Why are you screaming?
The officer, turning purple, is speechless for a while.
- Why did you complain? - Belyshev is interested.
- I have an order from the Minister to hand over a written order to the commander of the cruiser.
- About what?
- Who are you? - inquires adjutant.
Belyshev's eyes sparkle with challenge:
- Chairman of the Judicial Committee.
The adjutant chuckles.
- As far as I know, the minister did not approve such a position either for the Aurora or for other ships.
- The revolution asserts without asking permission from the ministers of the Provisional Government. Let's order!
- Only personally to the commander!
- Okay ... Comrade messenger!
- Yes, chairman ... - A young sailor comes out of the crowd of sailors.
- Call the commander up!
The messenger runs towards the vestibule.
The adjutant intently examines the sailors and the ship.
- Admire the impenetrable mud, - Lipatov points to the deck, on which there is not a speck, the cleanliness of the superstructures and the guns covered with covers, - and what ragamuffins we are. - He circles the sailors with a sweeping gesture, standing in pea coats buttoned up with all buttons, and, moving closer to the adjutant, indignantly asks: - Why do you allow any trash to lie about us for seven months?
The adjutant is silent.
- Hey, buddy, great! - welcomes him, pushing through the crowd, machinist Babin. - Didn't he admit it?
The pompous face of the adjutant turns gray.
- Remember? .. That's it!
Babin explains to the team:
- He was on errands with the chief persuader when we carried the guard in Zimny.
- This is when Kornilov attacked Petrograd? - specifies Lipatov.
- Wow! - picks up Babin. - As soon as our shift began, I separate the sailors to their posts, suddenly Kerensky himself emerges from the office: an eagle's eye, his hand is stuck between the buttons of the jacket ... Napoleon! He has an adjutant with him, this one...
- Listen! - Adjutant raises his voice to a scream. - Mr. committeeman, order the sailors to treat the Minister-Chairman with due respect!
Belyshev is extremely polite:
- Get really excited. The comrade didn't say anything special.
- Tell me, Babin! Zakharov asks. - It is very curious to know what you and Kerensky were talking about.
The sailors join Zakharov in chorus, although they have heard the driver's story more than once.
- The minister saw us, - Babin continues imperturbably, - he smiled, as if he had found the lost happiness. He greeted everyone by the hand and let's grind with your tongue ... Why didn’t you just say! Always, he swears, he was a friend to sailors. And then he got sad. “Why,” he asks, “are you guarding me, but supporting the Bolsheviks?” I see malice in his eyes: he seemed to put us on both shoulder blades. And such evil disassembled me, blurted out to him: “Because,” I answer, “Mr. Kerensky, in order to arrest you if you want to sell the working people to Kornilov.” He turned sixteen points - and at full speed back to the office. Since then friendship apart.
Belyshev cheerfully watches the adjutant.
The crowd parted, letting Erickson into the circle.
Clicking his spurs, the adjutant introduces himself and takes out a package from behind the cuff.
Erickson invites the adjutant to the salon.
- Take the order, - suggests Belyshev, - there is no time to breed ceremonies.
The commander's fingers, trembling, tear open the envelope and straighten the order form.
- The minister orders ... - Anticipating a storm, Erickson squeezes out the words: - the same as the day before yesterday ... "Aurora" to go to sea to test cars and, having done it, follow to Abo at the disposal of the head of the second brigade of cruisers .
- Look you! - Zakharov is amazed. - Cunningly conceived: so as not to interfere with the people to suppress! So, mister adjutant?
The latter, without honoring him with an answer, intimidates Erickson:
- The minister warns you that attempting to delay the cruiser's exit will be considered treason. You know the consequences.
Erickson has a martyr expression on his face, as if he were suffering from a toothache.
- Mr. adjutant, I am powerless: the team does not obey me.
Belyshev strictly corrects:
- Not certainly in that way. The team will not obey you only if you decide to dance to the tune of the Provisional Government and insist on going to sea. In the meantime, you will follow the instructions of the Centro-Balta, for each of us your word is law.
- That is, the Aurora team refuses to obey the minister? the adjutant asks passionately.
- Not only him, - still calmly clarifies Belyshev. - Avrorovtsy do not recognize the Provisional Government. We are following the instructions of Tsentrobalt, and tell about it.
- And I will! the adjutant threatens, pulling on his glove. - You will be treated like traitors!
- Then shake it off! - shouts the angry gunman Ognev. - Roll ... to Mr. Kerensky!
The sailors press the adjutant to the ladder with a solid wall, ready to deal with him for insulting him.
Erickson briskly disappears into the vestibule booth.
- Stop, comrades! Belyshev says authoritatively. - Never mind. The dog is barking, the wind is carrying... Get off the ship, Mr. Adjutant! Tell your minister we'll deal with the traitors soon!
The ringing of spurs is removed. The long, awkward envoy of Kerensky crosses the factory yard and hides behind a gate near the main entrance.
- Double the guard! - orders Belyshev. - Now he will send junkers or other Kornilovites.
- Let him try to stick his head out! - the machinist Vlasenko chimes.
Laughing, the sailors return to the living decks.
- Brothers! Chairman! - they call anxiously from the stern.
Belyshev quickly turns around.
The sentry, leaning towards the entrance ladder, points towards the factory gates.
Their wings slowly diverge.
One after another, green masses of two armored cars float up in the gap of the gate.
“He kept these little things in reserve, not otherwise,” suggests Lipatov. - Wants to intimidate!
- Live in the cubicles! Everyone in the gun! - without taking his eyes off the armored cars, Belyshev commands. - Sentinels, to the officer's vestibule. Don't let anyone out of the nobility!
And he, pulling out his Mauser, runs up to the stern bridge.
Rolling over on earthen mounds, the armored cars crawl across the yard and stop near the pier opposite the cruiser.
The round cover of the turret of the nearest machine leans back. A junker in a leather cap and a leather jacket, tied crosswise with the straps of a brand new sword belt, rises above the hatch.
Clasping his hands like a mouthpiece, he shouts out in syllables:
- Hey, ko-mi-tet-chi-ki!
Belyshev responds to a megaphone:
- What do you order, mister junker?
- I order you to set sail and go where it is appointed! I'll give you a quarter of an hour!
There is laughter on deck.
- Passengers like you go, but sailors go! - Sailor Shevchenko shouts. - And they do not set off, but are removed!
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Belyshev cannot help smiling: the cadet does not understand anything either in marine terminology or in terms of sailing. It takes at least an hour to leave the factory harbor, and then with the help of tugboats.
- Can you give me a dozen minutes? - jokingly asked from the deck.
The junker is angry:
- So that in a quarter of an hour your spirit will not be here!
Standing at the wing of the bridge, Belyshev assesses the situation. Everywhere - behind the ledges of vestibules, towers of guns, superstructures, fan sockets - armed sailors perched. Shutters click dry.
- Hey you, dandy! - Belyshev calls loudly, pointing a megaphone at the cadet. - We're giving you and your buddies five minutes to get out the gate!
Juncker instantly disappears into the hatch. The lid slams shut.
The turrets of both armored cars rotate smoothly and freeze again. Their machine guns are aimed at the deck of the cruiser.
- Stern! - Belyshev's voice is carried over the pier. - Aim at the gentlemen of the junkers!
Softly rustling, falling on the deck, covers. Barrels of rapid-fire cannons turn towards the pier.
Silent endurance duel lasts less than a minute. Then Belyshev is again applied to the megaphone:
- Gentlemen Junkeryo! I suggest that you find yourself at the Kalinkin Bridge in four minutes! If you don't mind, throw out the white flag!
The turret cover of the head armored car rises slightly. A gloved hand sticks out of the hatch, waving a handkerchief.
- Oh, well done! - praises Belyshev. - Come on, march from the yard!
Backing away, both cars move deep into the factory site and, howling with sirens, rush to the gates at full speed.
The commissar, hiding his Mauser, descends from the bridge.
- There was no food. Another time they won’t turn up ... What are you doing, Evdokim? It's too early to laugh, - he reproachfully says to the gunman who sputters his bass.
- Yes, what am I talking about, Shura ... Our guns do not have shells at all! Empty loaded!
Thunderous laughter rolls over compartments and decks for a long time.
In the evening, tug boats moor a barge with shells brought from Kronstadt to the side of the cruiser.
Loading starts.
Access to the fairway
On the water
dusk
similar as well -
bottomless
blue hole,
And here
more
and seeing a whale
carcass
Avrorov.
V. Mayakovsky
By midnight, the cruiser is in full combat readiness. The reloading of the required number of shells from the barge to the ship's cellars is completed. A curious attempt by the Provisional Government to intimidate the sailors with armored cars and force the crew to withdraw the Aurora from Petrograd failed. The sailors are on the lookout. The guards on the cruiser were doubled, and on the minesweeper Fifteenth, moored not far from it, posts were additionally set up near the pier and the main gate, and behind them, outside - at the square opposite the fire station and at the Kalinkin bridge - patrols of sailors and workers walk around.
The war between the people and the Provisional Government has entered its last phase.
This is accurately reported by the third order of the Military Revolutionary Committee, brought by a messenger from Smolny around midnight. It is addressed to the Commissioner.
Having called the members of the ship's committee to him, Belyshev introduces them to the order.
The text of the order is:
To the Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies on the cruiser Aurora.
The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies decided: to instruct you to restore traffic along the Nikolaevsky Bridge with all the means at your disposal.
The provisional government ordered the junkers to open all the bridges on the Neva, says the messenger. - Nikolaevsky, Palace, Trinity and Foundry have already been divorced. Do you understand, commissar, what Kerensky is up to? Cut off the factory workers so that not a single Red Guard detachment gets into the center, and wait until the Kornilovites arrive from behind the city, and then fall on the workers en masse and strangle us!
- It is necessary to bring bridges, - says Belyshev. - And hurry up.
- Give me twenty people, Shura! - asks Lukichev. - Let's knock out the junkers from the Nikolaevsky bridge.
Belyshev disagrees:
- Randomly nothing to meddle. Who knows how many Junkerish women are at the bridge! We'll send twenty - probably not enough; Let's send a hundred and twenty - what if it's not enough either? Send everyone? What are we going to do if the Kornilovites come here? No, people are needed on the ship. You can't risk Aurora. We must go with the ship. To the Neva. Aim the guns at the bridge and, under their guns, attack and knock out the junkers.
Members of the ship's committee think.
- Who will lead? - doubts Bzlousov. - It's a cruiser, not a boat. Skill is needed to manage such a colossus.
- And what are the officers on the ship for? Vekshin asks irritably. - Since February, they have been eating bread for free. They will lead. I'm in favor of going to the bridge.
Lipatov, Zakharov and Nevolin join Vekshin.
“Still, it doesn’t interfere with sending reconnaissance ashore,” Lukichev insists.
- When we enter the Neva, we will send it to both sides - to Vasilyevsky Island and to the English Embankment, - Belyshev decides. - So, we agreed: we go to the bridge! Prepare people. Let them raise steam and warm up the cars. It is up to you three - Belousov, Nevolin and Lukichev. We will certainly need a searchlight, so, Vekshin, let the electricians know. The rest - the steering watch, gunners, signalmen, tugboats and gentlemen officers - are behind us: behind Lipatov, Zakharov and me. Finished the conversation.
At one o'clock in the morning, the steam is raised to the mark, the cars are warmed up. Commanders, electricians, helmsmen have long been in their places. The ship is ready to sail, but the exit is unexpectedly delayed due to the refusal of the commander and other officers to obey the decision of the ship's committee. At the last moment, Erickson told the commissar that the draft would not only prevent the cruiser from reaching the Nikolaevsky Bridge, but even prevent it from entering the Neva.
- During the war, the fairway of the river never deepened, - the commander explains the reason for the refusal. - The true depths are unknown, the ship can run aground.
Erickson's argument is a serious one. Formally, the commander is right, but in fact - the sailors understand this very well - he, under a plausible pretext, does not want to sail the ship to the Neva.
The commissioner convenes the ship's committee again.
- How to be, friends-comrades?
- It is necessary to make a sounding, - suggests the secretary of the ship's committee, Sergei Zakharov.
- How? - asks Vekshin. - Boats away from the Smolny.
- I undertake to measure the fairway with a manual lot. Give me a boat, a lantern, a sheet of paper and four rowers, the foreman asks.
Belyshev hesitates:
- Risky, Sergey. If they spot a cadet on the bridge, they will shoot him with a bullet.
- I'll try not to take it off. Order, commissar, to lower the boat! Zakharov repeats angrily. - Every minute is precious.
He puts on a pea coat, turns up his collar, and, pulling his cap on, leaves.
For a long hour and a half, Belyshev and almost the entire crew, with the exception of those on duty in the engine and boiler rooms, freeze on the upper deck in the cold rain, peering into the darkness of the night that swallowed the boat, and listening anxiously to the frequent pops of rifle shots somewhere in the direction of the Neva.
Finally, the joyful voice of Lipatov is heard:
- Boat!
In response, an electric flashlight flashes. This is Zakharov signaling.
Dozens of hands grab the foreman and drag him onto the deck.
Soon Zakharov, soaked through and through, trembling with cold and excitement, stands in the middle of the engine room and hands Belyshev a sheet with a drawing.
- Full order! Depths are quite normal for the Aurora. Even with a margin.
Inspired, Belyshev hurries to the wardroom, where they sit, forgetting about sleep, the officers and the commander.
- You have the floor, citizens. He puts the wet sheet on the table. - Here is the measurement. We can safely go all the way to the bridge.
The faces of the officers are frowning and aloof.
Erickson quietly asks:
- Why will the ship go to the bridge?
So I informed you! The junkers decided to open the bridge, and the Military Revolutionary Committee ordered us - the cruiser "Aurora" - to restore traffic by all means.
- Are you going to shoot at Zimny? - Erickson is still quietly interested in him.
“It’s not worth thinking about this,” Belyshev answers after thinking. - If the Military Revolutionary Committee orders, we will shoot at the Winter Palace ... until the Provisional Government surrenders.
- In other words, the Bolsheviks start a civil war and offer us to take part in it! - says the commander.
- Hey, where did they go! - somewhat taken aback, the commissioner is surprised. - Who opened the Nikolaevsky bridge - the Bolsheviks or gentlemen of the junker? The Bolsheviks demand: power - to the Soviets, land and factories - to the working people, peace - to the peoples! This is what the whole people wants, but Kerensky and those who support him - the capitalists and the landowners - do not want this. So, we need to drive them out of power!
- In vain you are agitating! Erickson is nervous. - I inform you on behalf of all the officers of the cruiser "Aurora" without exception: we flatly refuse to lead the ship to the Nikolaevsky bridge! We do not want to participate in the civil war! We are neither for the Bolsheviks, nor for Kerensky, but for Russia!...
- Is not it? Belyshev interrupts abruptly, looking into Erickson's eyes. - Russia is the people, and we Bolsheviks are with the people. The people trust us, not Kerensky!
- We keep neutrality, - the commander stands his ground.
- Do you want to wait, whose take? Is this your last word?
- Yes.
- Okay... Sentinels! - the commissioner shouts in his hearts, grabbing a sheet with a drawing and folding it into a tube.
The figures of two armed sailors are shown in the gap of the doors.
The Commissioner orders:
- Do not let anyone out of the wardroom and do not let anyone near the portholes! Bolt the portholes onto the armored covers!
Turning to the seated officers and having already mastered himself, he finishes:
- Oh, you neutrals! Think carefully what I will tell you in the end: either with the people, or against the people. One out of two. There is no third.
Having finished, he goes up to the upper deck.
Here's the commissioner! they shout from everywhere.
An unfamiliar sailor and an elderly bearded soldier are walking towards Belyshev, surrounded by members of the ship's committee.
- By order of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the second battalion of the Keksholmsky regiment was allocated to help the Aurora, - the soldier reports.
- And I'm from the Second Baltic crew, - the sailor introduces himself. - From the headquarters of the left sector. For communication. Have you received an order to go to the Nikolaevsky bridge?
Belyshev nods in the affirmative:
- Got. Let's just think about how to withdraw the Aurora ... Our officers seem to have staged a strike.
- Their upbringing does not allow, - the bearded Keksholmets responds ironically.
- Let's make it! - Vekshin is furious. Let me have a heart to heart talk with them!
He draws a revolver.
“Don’t scare them, they are already scared,” Zakharov stops. - Let's go, you'll see. It is not the gentlemen who keep the steering watch, but the sailors. I put the best. Do you agree, Commissioner?
- Act, - allows Belyshev.
What should our battalion do? - reminds Keksholmets.
- Take people to the Promenade des Anglais. We will point the guns at the junkers, and you must drive them away from the bridge.
- In a word, - the liaison from the crew concludes, - I will report at the headquarters as follows: only the Aurora to the Neva, the Kexholms - to the bridge ... Let's go, infantry!
Both messengers leave the ship.
- Stay where you are! - loudly commands the foreman. - Get off the moorings! Pass on the "Fifteenth": let him come out immediately for us!
The boatswain's pipes are pouring out, the tramp of feet is heard, the sailors on the towing steamers are calling to one another, which are supposed to take the cruiser out of the factory harbor. Everything happens, as always when sailing.
Belyshev, Lipatov and Zakharov ascend to the command bridge.
For the first time in their lives, they will have to navigate the ship on their own, and even in the hopeless darkness of an October night, along the winding fairway of the Neva. Every second of movement threatens with an accident, but there is no other way out. The instructions of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the sailors of the Aurora are obliged to fulfill to the end.
These are the thoughts of Belyshev and everyone who is next to him on the bridge.
The machine telegraph chimes melodiously. This foreman turned the handle of the progress indicator to "small
forward". A call back is immediately heard, confirming that the order has been understood and that the mechanisms in the engine room have been activated.
Two tugboats help the cruiser to get to the invisible channel of the Neva.
The minesweeper follows.
Frozen, the commissioner listens to the words of the foreman.
In a sonorous voice from tension, Zakharov indicates the course to the sailor standing at the helm.
Someone insistently calls out to Belyshev:
- Commissioner! .. Chairman! ..
The silhouette of a man with a rifle appears on the top step of the ladder.
Belyshev recognizes one of the guards assigned to the officers.
Why did you leave your post on your own?
- Dmitriev does not take his eyes off them, - the sailor justifies himself. - There was someone to send before you. And the commander was impatient for something: take it out and imagine the commissar!
Clenching his fists, an angry Belyshev takes a step towards the ladder:
- Tell him ... I begged twice, I won't do it the third time. Say no time. The ship took off. Although, maybe he changed his mind ... Okay, bring it here.
A little later, Erickson, accompanied by sentry, climbs onto the bridge.
- I agree to bring the ship.
- So, thought and figured it out? - curious Belyshev.
- No, I just can't let the Aurora run aground. I lead as needed. And only to the bridge. I won't do anything else.
- Okay, okay... Mornings are wiser than evenings.
Unfastening the holster of the Mauser, Belyshev takes
seat next to the commander.
Slowly making her way through the night darkness and rain, the cruiser enters the Neva fairway.
In the predawn haze, the Aurora anchors in front of the Nikolaevsky Bridge.
The beam of her searchlight creeps along the coast, snatching out of the darkness figures of junkers and an armored car, as if asleep at the entrance to the bridge.
From the height of the cruiser it is clearly visible: the junkers are racing along the embankment to the alleys, and the armored car takes off and rushes at full speed to the distant building of the Senate. Enemies do not accept combat.
In the beam of a searchlight, the facades of buildings on both banks, a huge cube of the Winter Palace, protrude from the darkness.
That's where the Aurora guns are aimed.
At the Nikolaevsky bridge
And because of Nikolaevsky
iron bridge,
like death
looks
unkind
Aurora
towers
steel.
V. Mayakovsky
Dawn is long. Fresh wind is unable to dispel the dense fog. Through the thickness of the fog and the endless twilight of a rainy October morning, the surface of the river is invisible. The Nikolaevsky Bridge, blocking the Neva in front of the Aurora, looks like a humpbacked monster hanging in space without any support. The beam of the ship's searchlight is lost in the gray haze. Drilling it, he either soars under low rain clouds, then falls flat on the granite slabs of the English and Senate embankments, polished with autumn slush, on the endlessly long facade of the Winter Palace, then moves like a round trembling spot along the Palace Bridge to Vasilyevsky Island, to the Rostral Columns, stretches out yellow path along the Universitetskaya embankment and, gradually shortening, crawls to the ancient sphinxes shining from the rain, as if carrying a vigil near the Nikolaevsky bridge.
The order of the Military Revolutionary Committee was carried out at three thirty in the morning.
As soon as the cadets, seeing the Aurora, fled into the predawn darkness, a group of ship's electricians moved ashore in a boat and, on their own, put into action the mechanisms of the drawbridge. At the same moment, as soon as the flight fell into place, detachments of soldiers from the Finnish Reserve and 180th Infantry Regiments and Vasileostrovsky
Red Guards. Connecting, they moved to the city center.
Many Aurors wanted to follow their example, but Belyshev, in the name of the Military Revolutionary Committee, as its commissar, forbade them to leave the ship. Everyone, without exception, except Lukichev. He was transported in a boat across the Neva with an order to deliver to Smolny
commissioner's report that the Aurora cruiser
holds the Winter Palace at gunpoint with six-inch guns and that the sailors are waiting for further instructions
Lenin and Stalin.
Since Lukichev disappeared into the fog behind the bridge, the ship's bell has counted the time three times.
At the end of the eighth hour of the morning, but the daylight does not overcome the darkness of the night. It takes more than three hours to wait for an answer from Smolny.
Wet under the incessant rain in a piercing storm wind, the people of gun crews on the forecastle and aft, the electricians on the mars platform at the searchlight. Three people in oilcloth raincoats with pointed hoods are vaguely visible on the bridge. These are Belyshev, Lipatov and Zakharov. In front of their inflamed eyes from insomnia, everything merges, shrouded in a gray haze of fog. The bridge of the Aurora seems to hang over an impenetrable cloudy abyss.
The ship's bell rings four times, loudly responding to double blows: eight o'clock in the morning.
Leaving Lipatov and Zakharov on the bridge, the commissioner descends into the ship.
Everywhere - in the cockpits and corridors of the living decks - the voice of hundreds of people is heard. The sailors are at the ready: pea jackets are buttoned up, rifles are in their hands or placed nearby. Ribbons with cartridges worn over pea jackets shine yellow, bayonets and rifle barrels glisten.
The machinists tensely listen to the commissar.
- Take ten people and scout out what the Winter has. Foteev, go along Konnogvardeisky Boulevard to St. Isaac's Square. Babin, move to the Admiralty along the embankment. Don't ask for trouble, but if the junkers and other Kornilovites are hurt, don't give up!
- Don't hesitate, - Babin assures. - We will be able to introduce ourselves: we are from Aurora!
Having selected twenty people from the mass of those who want to go on reconnaissance, the machinists take them to the upper deck, to the gangway, near which boats lowered from the ship fidget on short river waves.
Throwing back the hood of his raincoat, Belyshev continues to walk around the premises. It's nice to be warm after a night spent in the wind, in the rain! A heightened hearing picks up snippets of conversation.
The commissioner enters the cockpit.
Laughing gunners sit and stand in a tight ring around the hefty gunnery Evdokim Ognev and his bosom friend Larion Gurdin.
- ... Just wait, - Ognev booms, - let's shake out the gentlemen - and we will be our own masters!
The smiles on the faces of the gunners are replaced by stern determination. Eyes turned to Belyshev: soon?
- What is good? - Commendator Mineev is perplexed. "When are we going, commissar?"
- Didn't we show up? - in turn, asks Belyshev. - Why is the position bad for guns? Or are you afraid to miss the Winter?
- From here?.. Somehow we won't miss, - Ognev promises. - Just tell me.
- I do not order, but the Military Revolutionary Committee. We are obliged to obey his instructions. So prescribed Tsentrobalt. Lukichev sent to Smolny. He will return and say that the Aurora has been ordered.
Gurdin sighs:
- I'd rather...
The deafening rattle of the alarm bell pervades the entire ship.
Now there is no time to talk.
Following Belyshev, loading rifles on the move, overtaking each other, the sailors run out to the upper deck.
It's still just dawning.
A dim October day looms over the Neva and the facades of the buildings on the granite embankments. The bridge and embankments are deserted. The wind drives dirty-red swell lambs along the lead surface of the river.
The commissar looks around and, not seeing anything threatening, hurries to the bridge to find out the cause of the combat alarm.
- Look!
Zakharov stretches out his hand towards the mouth, where buildings of workshops rise in the fog, slipways with unfinished ships and cranes of the Baltic Shipyard resembling gigantic storks with lowered beaks.
Against the background of the workshops, five oblong spots are moving along the Neva, heading for the bridge.
- Destroyers! - Identifies Lipatov. - For whom? For Kerensky or ours?
Belyshev grabs the binoculars. Squat destroyers and high-sided minelayers are clearly distinguishable. Lifting the breakers on the river and throwing them to the granite banks, the ships go against the current.
- "Perceptive", - Belyshev reads the name of the lead destroyer. - Behind him is the Khoper minelayer, the third is the destroyer Prochny, the fourth is the Amur minelayer, the end is Zealous. From Kronstadt. Our! Put down the combat alert!
One by one the ships are approaching the Nikolaevsky bridge. Their decks are crowded with armed sailors, red flags flutter under the gaffs, red flags with huge letters of the most popular slogan are hung on the walls of the conning towers:
ALL POWER TO THE ADVICE!
Having slowed down, the ships turn around near the cruiser and moor one by one to the English Embankment: first, the “Perceptive” sticks to the wall, then the minelayers and the rest of the destroyers.
Davits are taken overboard from the last ship. Several sailors jump into the boat, lower it into the water and row across the Neva to the Aurora.
Belyshev descends to the front ladder to meet the guests.
A tall sailor gets out of the boat onto the gangway and easily runs onto the deck of the cruiser. On his flattened cap, flat as a pancake, is the name of the battleship of the Baltic Fleet: "Dawn of Freedom". At the belt is a Mauser. Boots creak. The collar of the pea coat is turned up to keep out the rain. The face is young, with high cheekbones, in the eyes - concern, determination, confidence.
1 Davits - steel rotating beams, under which boats are hung on a ship.
The sailor is shaking his hand to Belyshev and everyone who is standing near the gangway.
- Were you late? he worries. - We squeezed everything out of the cars to the droplet.
“They arrived just in time,” Belyshev reassures. - It started the other day, but there is enough work for you and for us.
Why aren't you in the city?
Belyshev draws a straight line with his hand from the tank gun to the Winter Palace:
- They took aim at the interim ministers.
- Clearly, - the guest smiles. - This is Kerensky's apartment? Let's smoke the fox out of the bear's lair! We hope for Aurora cannons. We were given an order over the telephone in Kronstadt: to cordon off the Zimny.
“Keep in touch with us,” recommends the commissioner. - From us a man was sent to Smolny and two detachments for reconnaissance.
- Yeah. In this case, I will single out the liaisons.
The Kronstadter salutes and returns to the boat.
Many eyes watch her as she crosses the Neva. From halfway along, the Kronstadt, having removed his cap, semaphored for the destroyers.
- Landing on the beach! - Following the wave of the hands of the man in the boat, the signalman Vedyakin announces the value of the semaphore.
From the board of the Aurora it is visible: a stream of people in black pea coats rushes to the shore from the destroyers and minelayers.
In a long chain, the landing force is stretched along the embankment from Nikolaevsky to the Palace Bridge.
- Well, hold on, Kerensky! - triumphantly exclaim on deck.
- Let's go eagles! Said sailor Shevchenko with approval and undisguised envy. - Oh, and we would be yes with them! Watch out, commissioner!
The sailors look expectantly at Belyshev.
The commissioner is adamant.
- Not before Lukichev returns. In the meantime ... everyone who is not on duty - down! Go to your cubicles! Be ready!
He again climbs onto the bridge, pulls on the hood of his raincoat and, standing next to Lipatov and Zakharov, secretly worried, stares fixedly at the square beyond the bridge, from where Lukichev should come.
The rainy day of October 25 took over the rusty Neva, tousled by a storm wind, over the fog-shrouded aristocratic mansions of the embankments, over the workshops and lacy cranes of the Baltic Shipbuilding Plant, over the gray hulls of ships near the Nikolaevsky Bridge. In the rain shroud, the bayonets on hundreds of rifles of the landing detachment, leaving for the Palace Bridge, dimly gleam; the bare barrels of the cruiser's guns are tirelessly gazing in the direction of the Winter Palace; the gunmen froze at the cannons, the sentries at the ladder, the commissar and his assistants on the bridge.
The sailors of the Aurora are waiting for orders.
Shot from the Aurora
And on top -
city
as if exploded
bang
six-inch Aurora.
V. Mayakovsky
Lukichev returns only at noon.
“The Military Revolutionary Committee ordered the following to be handed over,” he reports, entering the bridge. - First: to allocate several small detachments and from time to time send them for reconnaissance to the center and to Zimny. Second: to introduce a continuous watch on the ship's radiotelegraph. Third: send fifty men to guard the Smolny. Malkov from the Diana was appointed commandant there.
- My year! Zakharov declares happily. - From the crew to the brigade together were appointed in the eleventh year. Solid person. Serious.
- Two of our detachments are already on the shore. Okay, let's send two more, - says Belyshev. - And for Smolny will appoint Lipatov. He has a list of strings. Go ahead, Timothy.
- I'll pick it out now.
Lipatov takes out a sheet of paper from the pocket of his pea coat, covered on both sides with the names of the sailors.
- Whom did you see? - Belyshev is interested.
Lukichev's face is beaming:
- Lenin himself - that's who!
The sailors move closer around the driver.
- Wait, wait! What is he? - asks Lipatov. - So short, with a beard and mustache, in civilian clothes ... Is he or is he not?
There is amazement in Lukichev's eyes.
- Not tall, as tall as me, right; in civilian clothes is also true. However, no beard or mustache.
“So it’s not Lenin,” Lipatov says decisively. - I saw him at a meeting of military representatives in June and on the balcony of the Kshesinskaya palace in July, before the demonstration, when he delivered a speech. From afar, true, but I remember.
“Look, how you misunderstood, Mikola,” Zakharov draws disappointedly.
- Didn't know at all! - offended Luki-chev. - I heard his name with my own ears.
“Tell me plainly,” advises Belyshev. - Where did you see Lenin?
- In Smolny! I come, and there the people are even denser than the day before yesterday, when you and I came to Sverdlov. In the lower floor and in the corridors do not push through. Orders for rifles are issued, one hundred and fifty pieces for each factory. There is no one in the seventeenth room, although the sentry is standing. I asked him where the Military Revolutionary Committee was. Gave me another address: room number ten. I’m walking, counting the numbers on the doors, in the corridor, and one person is in a hurry to meet me. He drew level, squinted, looked with piercing eyes, as if he looked into the soul, and asked: “Whom are you looking for, comrade?” The voice is friendly, but the letter "er" is not pronounced like everyone else. A little burr. I don't know why, but I just said in one spirit,
that the sailors of the Aurora have complied with the instructions of the Military Revolutionary Committee and are waiting for instructions on what to do next. “Very good, very good,” he replies quickly. - Tell the comrades in the committee about it. They are in the tenth room." He showed me where room number ten was, and was about to go his own way, when alone from around the corner some compromiser in glasses jumped up on him and yelled: “You are counting and relying on bayonets, Mr. Lenin!” Here I am rooted to the place. It turns out that this is Lenin?! I stand and wait: what he will say... I look, Lenin strokes his huge forehead, slyly squints and puts the toy of the compromiser, who amicably wanted to negotiate with the bourgeoisie, puts him on both shoulder blades... I remember word for word: “Not the Bolsheviks, but all the people will defend the gains of the revolution with bayonets ... ”He turned and walked along the corridor, and I look and look) after him ... However, Lenin had neither a beard nor a mustache.
- How so? - puzzled Lipatov.
“Very simple,” Belyshev guesses. - How many months he was hiding from spies! He probably shaved off his beard and mustache so that they would not be identified by them.
- What about in the city? Zakharov is curious.
- On Nevsky - darkness-darkness. Gentlemen, their young ladies and ladies, all sorts of Kornilovites. They buzz like wasps with a stick stuck in their nest. Armored cars go back and forth. Both ours and Kerensky. On the bridge near the Moika, our Babin and a patrol from the Kronstadt detachment turned back some delegation from the City Duma. Shower twenty gentlemen. With umbrellas. They wanted to go to the Aurora to persuade us to obey Kerensky, and not the Bolsheviks. Babin showed these gentlemen his peakless cap. “Competent? - asks. - Have you read what is written here? .. And if you read it, you should understand that I am speaking to you on behalf of the crew of the Aurora cruiser. Listen to what I say: we have
on a ship like you, neutral compromisers are sitting under guard in the hold. Maybe you want to join them for company? .. No? .. Then go home to drink tea and do not get in the way of people ... All around the march! .. "
- And those? - Interested in Lipatov.
- And those, like recruits on drill, turned around, some from left to right, some from right to left, and went.
- Who else have you seen? - asks Belyshev.
- Near St. Isaac's Square, at the corner of Morskaya, I met Foteev with a detachment. Eagles! They act together with the Red Guards. They occupied the lobby of the military hotel "Astoria", and it is full of officers and speculators - and they do not let anyone out.
- Well, they hired to guard them? - Lipatov taunts.
- While they will figure it out, - explains Lukichev. - The Red Guards are checking the documents of the gentlemen and looking for weapons. In one room, some Kornilov reptile installed a machine gun on the window behind the curtain. Found.
- Prepare people for Smolny, Timofey, - Belyshev hurries, - and I'll visit Alontsev.
Leaving the bridge, he goes to the radio room.
Her door is wide open. In the depths of the room, at a table cluttered with metal appliances, perched on the edge of a chair, with his back to the door, senior radio operator Fedor Alontsev. It is very uncomfortable for him to sit in this position, and at another time, no doubt, he would have changed his position long ago, but now, apparently, it is not up to that. As if not noticing the commissar who entered, he writes hurriedly.
From behind Alontsev's shoulder, Belyshev reads the lines of the radiogram, jumping at random and at random, which he receives:
“To the citizens of Russia!
The provisional government is overthrown. State power passed into the hands of an organ of the Petrograd Soviet
and the workers' and soldiers' deputies - the Military Revolutionary Committee, which is at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and the garrison.
The cause for which the people fought: the immediate offer of a democratic peace, the abolition of landowner ownership of land, workers' control over production, the creation of a Soviet government, this cause is assured.
Long live the revolution of workers, soldiers and peasants!”
Jumping up, Alontsev rips off his headphones and turns to Belyshev:
Did you read it, commissar? After all, this ... after all, about this ... Let me hug you, Shura! ..
They kiss three times and together they carry to the cockpit, to the engine and boiler rooms, to combat posts near machine guns and guns, the words of the appeal of the Military Revolutionary Committee, with which Lenin, like a magic key, opened the door of the cherished world of freedom to people. The appeal seemed to add fuel to the fire. A lot has already happened, a lot is still to come, but there is no and no signal about the performance of the Aurora. The sailors are worried. How then to look into the eyes of people when they ask: “Where have you been, eagles”? What do the commissioner and the ship's committee think? How long to play peepers with Kerensky?
After waiting for the most impatient of the team to shout to their heart's content, Belyshev announces the order of the Military Revolutionary Committee to send a detachment to Smolny.
- And Lukichev will tell you what he saw and heard in the city. Speak, Nikolai.
The machinist repeats the story of his visit to Smolny, of his meeting with the detachments of Babin and Foteev.
Meanwhile, Belyshev is pulled by the sleeve.
- Come out to the hold, - the watchman from the boatswain's team calls in an undertone.
- Did something go wrong? - the commissar is worried and looks around the room warily.
Hundreds of people are listening to Lukichev with interest.
Watchman whispers:
- They quarrel. Through the fans hear every word.
The commissioner hurries to the ladder.
At the tarp-covered hatch leading from the battery deck to the hold, there is no one but two sentries. They guard the arrested officers and the commander of the ship, transferred from a cozy wardroom to a dark hold, by order of the ship's committee. Pushing their peakless caps to one side, the sentries clung to the bells of the fans supplying the hold with air.
“Listen,” one of the sentries offers Belyshev. - Midshipman rebelled. He wants to join us, but the commander is threatening to sue.
The commissar puts his ear to the bell and immediately recognizes the voice of midshipman Polenov, the youngest of the officers:
- ... not only dream of power, but also act. And they are not at all afraid of us. In addition, they even put me in the hold ... You do as you wish, and I will ask to go upstairs. Tired!
- Without a change - and in the Bolshevik speakers! Let's see, let's see how the Bolsheviks manage to take power!
- This is Erickson, - the commissar guesses and loudly orders sentries: - Open! Now I will make him happy, my dear, neutral friend!
Sentinels drop the tarpaulin from the hold hatch.
- Wait, commissioner, I'll shine.
Leaning over the square hatch, the officer on duty lowers the "fly" lantern into it.
In the hold they seemed to have died out.
Belyshev quickly climbs down the steep brace, jumps from the bottom step onto the boardwalk, looks around at the officers and, finding Erickson, says not without irony:
- Bad fortune-teller among you, citizen commander: the Bolsheviks have already taken power. Read. - He hands him a radiogram: - Read aloud.
Stumbling in surprise, the commander announces the appeal of the Military Revolutionary Committee, adopted by Alontsev.
The commissar scowls at the officers. Erickson throws up his hands. A thin young midshipman, stretching his neck, leaned forward. The corpulent, purple-faced artilleryman nervously fiddles with a button on his tunic, as if intending to tear it off.
“Since the Provisional Government has been overthrown...” Erickson mumbles, “we are free from obligations towards it...
He ponders for a long time under Belyshev's gaze, then stretches his arms at his sides:
- I present myself at the disposal of the new government.
- You? - Belyshev addresses the artilleryman.
“I am,” he exclaims in a tone of extreme amazement. - I'll wait.
“It’s the master’s business,” the commissar replies dryly. - What do you say, midshipman?
- I agree to take the watch.
- So get on deck with the commander. Who else?
The officers hesitate.
- There are no hunters! - the senior officer Nikonov declares defiantly.
- No, it's not! - Commissar says peacefully. - Then you will have to get bored in the hold. For now, let's deal with Kerensky.
He climbs up the ladder, where the commander and midshipman are waiting, announces to both that they are free.
boats within the ship, and, having ordered the guards to close the hatch of the hold again with a tarpaulin, he returns to the bridge.
In a short time, while Belyshev was in the cockpit and in the hold, the situation around the cruiser changed beyond recognition. The entire mouth section of the Neva from the Baltiysky Zavod to the Nikolaevsky Bridge is crowded with warships and auxiliary vessels of all types: destroyers, minesweepers, submarines, tugboats and passenger ships, freight transport, barges, armed steam and motor yachts. The embankments are black from the multitude of people in sailor jackets. This arrived from Kronstadt at the call of the Military Revolutionary Committee, led by the Bolsheviks, a combined detachment of sailors of the Baltic Fleet.
- Ten thousand, no less - says Zakharov.
- Well done Kronstadters! - Lipatov admires. - Don't be stingy. Now Kerensky is dead!
- Have people been sent to Smolny? the commissioner does.
- How! Our squadron is already rowing back.
Lipatov points to a flotilla of boats going to the Aurora across the Neva, then hands Belyshev a piece of paper:
- Alontsev brought. This was transmitted from the Polar Star1 for Kronstadt.
1 On the steam yacht "Polar Star", which was then in Helsingfors, there was Tsentrobalt.
“Greetings to Red Kronstadt,” the commissar reads. - Destroyers "Samson" and "Zabiyaka" come to your aid. They will proceed directly to Petrograd ... "Slightly below this text, in Alontsev's handwriting, it is attributed:" Along with them are the destroyers "Active" and "Metkiy", the messenger ship "Yastreb".
The sailors do not take their eyes off Belyshev: is it possible that such good news will not break through the armor of his restraint?
Smiling, he repeats the words of his deputy:
- Now soon Kerensky's death!
Zakharov remembers:
- It seems we have a semaphore! Vedyakin, take it!
The watch signalman peers into the rain twilight and loudly reports:
- The representative of the Military Revolutionary Committee invites the commissar of the Aurora and the chairmen of the ship's committees of all ships to appear on the Perspicacious!
- Answer that the semaphore is accepted for execution! - orders Belyshev and, having entrusted the cruiser to Lipatov, goes to the destroyer.
Boats with ship delegates rush to the "Perceptive" from everywhere. No time to hesitate. The delegates are carrying one order: to finish with Kerensky!
An hour later, Belyshev is back on the bridge of the Aurora.
- Agreed so, - he informs the members of the ship's committee. - Both minesweepers - "Fifteenth" and "Fourteenth" - will go up for the Palace Bridge. There they will anchor between Zimny and Petropavlovka. "Perceptive", "Strong" and "Zealous" will take a position below the Palace Bridge. They will guard it and keep the Kornilovites away from the embankments. Other ships remain in their places. "Aurora" was appointed senior on the road. The representative of the Military Revolutionary Committee, sent by Lenin and Stalin, will report through our contacts how the Winter Palace is doing, and we will signal to the rest of the ships. The signals are as follows: two lights - red and white - which means that negotiations are underway with the Provisional Government to surrender; one white - Kerensky surrendered; one red - start shelling the Winter Palace from the guns of all ships.
It has long since dawned, and the day is fading.
Twilight is gathering over bridges and embankments. Wet fog creeps over the rough surface of the river. Deafly, as if behind a wall, rifle and machine-gun fire is heard. In short intervals of calm, the storm wind whistles and howls angrily.
From morning until evening twilight, messengers from the reconnaissance detachments of Babin, Foteev, Krasnov and Shevchenko sent from the Aurora cross the river to the cruiser.
They report to the commissioner about the news in the city. The news is uncountable. After the capture of the Military Port and the radio station, about six hours passed, but both Admiralties - Novoe and Main were already occupied, the Mariinsky Palace and the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District were cleared of supporters of Kerensky. Winter Palace in the ring of revolutionary troops. At the Alexander Garden there are sailors of the mine training detachment, the Second Baltic crew, the naval guards crew, the armored division with machine guns and the Kexholmsky infantry regiment; on Morskaya Street and under the arch of the General Staff - the second division of armored cars, a battery of three-inch guns, detachments of the Red Guards of the Kolomna region, sailors and soldiers of different units; near the General Headquarters, from the side of the Moika and on the Police Bridge, - the infantry and Red Guards of the Putilov factory; at the Palace Bridge - soldiers of the Finland Regiment, detachments of sailors from the engine school and the Okean training ship, Red Guards from plants and factories on Vasilyevsky Island; along the facade of the Main Admiralty, facing the Winter Palace, sailors of the combined Kronstadt detachment; on the Troitsky bridge and the embankment of Peter the Great - the Revel shock battalion of sailors, a detachment from the training ship "Narodovolets", the Red Guards of the Vyborg side; on Nevsky Prospekt, near the Kazan Cathedral, - a reserve battery of three-inch guns, and further, to the Alexander Garden and exit to Palace Square, - army units; on the Admiralteiskaya embankment and on St. Isaac's Square - the Red Guards of the Baltic Shipyard, reconnaissance detachments from the Aurora and troops from the destroyers that came from Kronstadt; on Millionnaya Street near the Hermitage - soldiers of the Pavlovsky, Volynsky and Preobrazhensky regiments, sailors of the engine school and Red Guards of factories and factories of the Vyborg side. Everyone is waiting for the signal to attack.
And such are the forces of the counter-revolution. By seven o'clock in the evening, in addition to the garrison of the Winter Palace - three Cossack hundreds, a women's battalion, six companies of junkers, the Akhtyrets armored car, the most powerful in Petrograd, and an artillery battery - the Provisional Government has armed support for cadet schools. Armored vehicles and ambulances manned by cadets, hiding behind the flag of the Red Cross, from time to time rush through the streets and avenues, fire at soldiers, Red Guards, sailors, and unarmed passers-by. This is what the rifle shots and machine-gun bursts mean, the rumble of which is heard on the Aurora! Mikhailovsky Castle became a military center for counter-revolutionary conspirators. From there, the junkers, disguised as soldiers of infantry regiments, make sorties to the most important points of the city.
Rain, fog, sleet, cold storm wind, but the situation in Petrograd is extremely tense.
- The boat is on the starboard side! - loudly announces the signalman.
- Where is the commissioner? they shout from the boat.
Belyshev bends over the ledge of the bridge wing:
- What's the matter?
- Commissioner! Belyshev! - intermittently calls out to him a man in a boat. - I'm from Babin's detachment. The representative of the Military Revolutionary Committee ordered that Kerensky and the whole company should surrender at nine o'clock. If they become stubborn, then a red fire will be lit at Petropavlovka. When you see it, don't yawn. The Aurora must fire a blank for the signal. For everyone to hear. After the shot, there will be an assault ... - Taking a breath, the messenger continues to spread the news: - Our boatswain Klevtsov and one machinist from the Prozorlivy are sent to Smolny with instructions from all units. Report to the Congress of Soviets and Comrade Lenin: let them have no doubts, we will take the Winter Palace! .. The Cossacks have completely gone to the barracks. They did not want to defend Kerensky. And the junkers laid barricades of firewood in front of the palace. Heroes!.. What time is it on the clock?
- Twenty minutes to nine! - they respond from different places on the upper deck and from the bridge.
- So do not yawn! - Punishes the liaison.
The boat is removed.
“Order to raise a double signal,” the commissar addresses Erickson. - Top - red, bottom - white.
- I'm listening!
A minute later, one after another, along invisible halyards stretched from the bridge, double-signal lanterns swinging obliquely up to the bow mast crawl obliquely. They are waiting for them on the ships placed along the Neva.
- Let's go to the tank, comrades!
The voice betrays Belyshev: the commissar is worried.
- I ask permission to stay on the bridge. Be present... I can't! - breaks out from Erickson1.
1 Subsequently, Erickson cheated on our country and fled abroad
- Stay. We'll get by somehow.
With a wave of his hand, Belyshev is the first to run to the deck.
Almost the whole team is already on the tank. The words of the messenger instantly circled the ship. Each person on the cruiser, languishing, counts the minutes and seconds. At the turret of the tank gun, the gunners on duty are at the ready.
- Are you Evdokim? the commissar asks, recognizing Ognev by his gigantic stature. - Charge idle. For testing on the Winter.
- We waited! - Ognev booms happily.
The lock of a six-inch gun clanks dully.
A hopeless haze hangs over the river behind the Palace Bridge. In the direction where the eye guesses the dark bulk of the Peter and Paul Fortress, nothing is visible. There is no light signal.
It was nine o'clock, but the watchman from the boatswain's team, absorbed, like everyone else, by waiting, forgot about his duties. The ship's bell, hourly keeping track of time, is silent.
And time does not wait. Minute after minute go to infinity, like wave after wave.
A tense silence hangs over the cruiser. Hundreds of eyes stare into the darkness, hoping to see the fire of a lantern. The vague silhouette of the Peter and Paul Cathedral seems to sway before your eyes.
What were they doing there! - Zakharov mutters impatiently and runs up the ladder to the bridge. The sound of the foreman's boots on the metal steps is clearly audible in the silence. It seems like a huge pendulum hastily counting the seconds.
- Thirty-five tenth, - informs the foreman, come back. - Something happened on Petropavlovka, not otherwise.
- Fire, fire! - exclaim on deck.
Now everyone can see: in the darkness behind the bridge slowly
a red dot crawls up - the fire of a lantern, a conventional sign for the Aurora.
Nine hours forty minutes.
- Pli! - Belyshev says briefly.
Instead of the melodious chime of the clock bell - over the ship, over the river, over Petrograd immersed in darkness through a storm wind, blocking all sounds,
a powerful roar of a six-inch gun is heard. The echo carries it along the granite shores.
The flash of a shot for a moment illuminates Belyshev, Lipatov, Zakharov, Lukichev, Alontsev, Ognev and the gun crew on duty, their figures tilted towards the Winter Palace, as if petrified on the run, their figures, on which the expectation is frozen ...
The echo of the shot is no longer heard. The roar of the wind picks up again. He brings the sound of machine-gun fire from across the river. Distant rifle salvos merge into one with the deaf, incessant, drawn-out roar of thousands of people:
- Urrraaaa!
The assault began.
- Charge combat!
Now Belyshev's voice has the usual calmness. The commissar mastered himself.
However, the overall voltage is at its limit. For what served as a signal to action for the revolutionary detachments on the shore means for the sailors on ships for the time being only a warning to be ready to start shelling the Winter Palace with live shells.
The darkness of the night hides the majestic spectacle of twenty-five warships, whose guns, after a light signal from the Aurora, are turned towards a single, thrice-hateful target. Giant fingers of the six-inch guns of the cruiser Avrora, rapid-firing guns of the destroyers Samson and Zabiyaka, which had just arrived from Helsingfors, the messenger ship Abrek, the training ship Verny, the minelayers Amur and "Khoper", messenger ship "Hawk", machine guns of submarines "Yorsh" and "Trout", steam and motor yachts "Standart", "Roxana", "Strela", "Neva", "Astarta", "Concordia", " Princess”, “Alexandria”, “Zarnitsa”. From the anchorage between the Nikolaevsky and Palace bridges, the destroyers "Prozorlivy", "Zealy", "Strong" set their sights on the last refuge of the Provisional Government. And the cannons of the destroyer Deyatelny, the minesweepers Fourteenth and Fifteenth, which passed beyond the Palace Bridge, almost to the very bastions of the Peter and Paul Fortress, look at the Winter Palace at point-blank range through the night at the Winter Palace. A volley of all the guns of the squadron led by the Bolsheviks is ready to fall on the citadel of the Provisional Government as soon as the desired signal flashes with a crimson light on the masts of the Aurora.
And time won't wait...
The second hour of the assault has begun. Machine guns are tirelessly knocking in the direction of the Winter Palace. Messengers appear one after another, reporting to the commissar about what is happening on Palace Square.
- Repulsed the junker attack! - Angrily shouts a messenger from Foteev's detachment. - “Akhtyrets” helped them. Suddenly got out from behind the Alexander column and let's fire! He cut clean the first chain of miners and Red Guards. Whoever ran out from under the arch from Morskaya Street - everyone lay down! .. Our armored cars hit him, and the bullets bounce off. He's got armor like a ship's...
- Covered, covered "Akhtyrts"! - joyfully announces another messenger. - Mitin from the "Standard" covered! Two grenades. The junker machine gunner spotted him but missed. Here the brother waved. Both grenades - under the very wheels. "Akhtyrets" even tilted... Stuck. Neither there nor here. Now it's easier for us...
It's almost midnight.
And suddenly it becomes unbearably quiet. Everything fell silent: screams, machine-gun bursts, rifle shots. Only the wind whistles incessantly in the ship's gear.
“Probably broke into the palace,” suggests Zakharov.
- Spotlight! Alive! - the commissar urges the electricians on. - Swipe along the waterfront!
The searchlight beam, like a light trail, spreads along the coast. In the dusty light of the beam, a man is seen running towards the bridge.
This is a messenger from Shevchenko's detachment.
Standing on the bridge, he waves his peakless cap.
- "Aurora"! - folds the swings of the peakless cap and hands into letters and the words signalman on the upper bridge. - No more shooting! Ours in Winter! They fight on the stairs and in the corridors!”
Long live Soviet power! - Belyshev responds at the top of his voice.
The sailors unanimously repeat the words of the commissioner:
Long live Soviet power!
Belyshev also calls at the top of his voice:
- Citizen midshipman! Comrade Polenov! As a watch officer, I instruct to write in the ship's log: “On October 25, at nine forty in the evening, the Aurora cruiser, in accordance with the order of the Military Revolutionary Committee, fired a conditional shot at the Winter Palace in order to force the Provisional Government to recognize the rights of labor people and surrender power to the Soviets!”
Commissioner's report
We are living
by order
October will.
Fire
"Aurora"
in our sight.
V. Mayakovsky
The porthole is wide open. Through the rain haze, the embankments of the Neva, bordered by rows of mansions, are visible. In the distance stretched the box-shaped facade of the Winter. The spiers of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Admiralty seem like golden masts. The dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral rises above the colorful roofs.
The cabin of the ship's committee is full of sailors. These are the commanders of sailor detachments from the Aurora, who fought shoulder to shoulder with the Red Guards of the factory districts and soldiers against the Provisional Government. The sailors are sitting around the table - some lean on it, others lean on their chests - sigh sympathetically when the commissar for the fourth time begins to rewrite the report to the Military Revolutionary Committee on the participation of the Aurors in the October battles. Comrades Stalin and Sverdlov ordered so. Business without habit does not stick. The report seems to Belyshev excessively long, many words are superfluous.
The commissar pores over the paper for a long time, and finally, having rewritten the first page clean, reads aloud:
- “The cruiser Aurora, being under repair at the Franco-Russian plant, was supposed to leave Petrograd on October 22 to test cars. But, bearing in mind the proposed Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, by order of Tsentrobalt, it was delayed for an indefinite time, and the reason for the delay was explained to the team by the fact that we, the Aurora cruiser, would have to take an active part in supporting the Council and, possibly, in the upcoming coup . On October 23, from the Military Revolutionary Committee, I received an appointment as commissar of the cruiser Aurora, for which an emergency meeting of the ship's committee was convened in the presence of the commander and other officers, where I briefly explained the commissar's instructions and in this regard warned that all orders and orders, emanating from the Military Revolutionary Committee and others, will be put into practice by me ... "
Postponing the report, Belyshev admits:
- I have no idea what to write next.
- Write down that the electricians themselves brought the bridge together, without waiting for the bridge mechanic, - advises Foteev.
- All right, - the commissar accepts the addition and, having made a note in the margins, postpones the report. “Now let’s think together what else to say.
The sailors think.
As if hurrying them, a rolling hoot bursts into the porthole of the cabin: the signal cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress has struck noon.
- Speak in order: what happened in Zimny? - Belyshev addresses Babin.
- Yes, I said so many times ... Don't you remember? .. We, that is, who from the Aurora and from the destroyers,
from the Admiralty and the Alexander Garden they aimed, and the Red Guards, soldiers, armored cars and detachments from other ships - from Nevsky, from the embankment of Peter the Great, from Millionnaya and from the Morskaya from under the arch. Nobody on the square. In front of the palace lattice - log barricades and the Kornilov armored car "Akhtyrets". The junkers fired a little, for their own vigor, but as the Aurora raised its voice, they fell silent. We are from all sides - to the palace, and then towards, from behind the Alexander Column, "Akhtyrets". Then a combatant from Shtandart, Mitin by name, grabbed two grenades. Threw them under the wheels. Just guessed in "Akhtyrts". Only one bullet bit Mitin. In the heart. On the spot. Five minutes later we went on the assault for the second time. All at once. Juncker - go! Ours follow them, to the palace, to the stairs. There are machine guns everywhere on the window sills, rifles on the floor... They caught the cadets... We got to the corner room, either 701 or 901, there's an abyss of them! Green in color, all in gold, curtains made of real brocade, a long table, covered with green cloth, like on billiards, and at the table, in chairs, sixteen people. In civilian clothes. In front of each is paper, an inkwell and a pen, and they themselves are as pale as the dead. At first, no one wanted to believe that these were the temporary ministers, but the doorman who brought us into that room swears and swears that they are the very ones ... We are before them: “Where is Kerensky?” They unanimously agreed that they left the palace in the morning. "Where?" They are silent ... They rushed back and forth, nowhere to be found. He ran away!.. We took the temporary ministers out of the palace, and I delivered them with our detachment to Petropavlovka without a change. In the Trubetskoy bastion. In separate rooms. I can name them.
- Don't, - Belyshev dismisses. What are they for?
- Better about the telephone exchange, - reminds Lipatov.
- Nevolin is absent, well, so I will say, - Vekshin is called. - There were eleven of our personnel from the Aurora at the telephone exchange, the rest were Red Guards and Keksholm. First of all, they agreed to take away the cars from which the junkers landed when they captured her. Five people - Nevolin, I and three Red Guards - crawled to the entrance, from the corner of Kirpichny Lane. Junkers missed us. Nevolin and I jumped into the car, started it up and rushed at full speed to Nevsky Prospekt. The junkers fired a whole line of machine guns after us, but they didn't hit. Behind us, others grew bolder and snapped up the cars in no time. The gentlemen of the junkers were decapitated. They sense that it's a bad thing, but they don't dare to lean out. We squeezed them from three sides. The Kexholmites approached from Gorokhovaya, Lipatov and four more with him, who arrived from the cruiser to help us - Bakinovsky, Shevchenko, Maksimov and Penyugalov - from St. Isaac's Square, and we - from Nevsky along Morskaya. We removed the barrels from the barricades, we roll in front of us, we hide behind them. At this time, Lipatov recaptured an armored car from other junkers. We are thinking about how to get to the station, and then an armored car under a red flag rushes from the square. They got up from the pavement - and to the porch! At first they were frightened, and when they realized that they would not be harmed by us, they began to swear. The young ladies shouted and dispersed. Refused to serve the revolution. Get used to the gentlemen. Not more than a dozen left. We appointed them for the elders, and put on the headphones ourselves - let's learn how to connect phones. Contacted the barracks, factories. Smolny, and then turned off the cadet schools and the Duma. In general, we have established communication and we understand that everyone at the station has nothing to do. They called the hunters into telephonists. Fifty people were found. And four
from Aurora. We read to them how to behave, posted sentries everywhere, and they themselves moved on. Just went out into the street - because of the corner of the car with a red cross. We didn’t have time to come to our senses - they took us at gunpoint from it: bang! bang! .. We - in all directions ... For about five minutes they fired at her from rifles. Then they ran up, and on the seats - the cadets. They no longer breathe. They covered themselves, scoundrels, with a red cross. They threw them out onto the pavement, and drove the car to the Aurora.
“That’s how it turned out with the armored car,” Lipatov puts in. - In the evening during the assault, when our grenades damaged the Akhtyrts, the cadets somehow repaired it and broke into the city. Where they hid all night, no one knew, and in the morning "Akhtyrets" appeared near St. Isaac's Square. It rushes from side to side and mows down everyone who gets caught. We waited until he showed up at the corner of Morskaya, and shot him back to the square. One bullet hit the engine. He got stuck. At first, we took refuge in the window niches of the Astoria Hotel, and when the engine at the Akhtyrts stalled, we ran out and attacked. The junkers were hit by machine guns. Some of ours fell. They ran to him anyway. They put the revolvers into the embrasures and first of all neutralized the driver with the machine gunner. Then the junkers surrendered. We somehow started the engine and rushed to the telephone exchange, to help Nevolin. Near it, the armored car completely stopped, but the machine guns came in handy.
“Do not forget to remember, commissar, about how they went against Kerensky near Gatchina and took cadets into binding in the Engineering Castle and in the Pavlovsk School,” says Lukichev. - And about the fact that Nevolin with a detachment was sent to help Moscow, and the Bondarev detachment helped the Soviet in Rybinsk to take power.
1 Now the city of Shcherbakov.
- What to paint? - the driver Bondar refuses to Belyshev's question. - We were only two days in Rybinsk. Better write off from the letter that I brought you from the Council: “We thank the crew of the cruiser Aurora for the fraternal revolutionary help ...” And that's the point.
The door to the cabin opens noisily. A tall sailor walks across the threshold. His peakless cap is shifted to the back of his head, two grenades are behind his belt.
- Hello, brothers!
- Hello, Nevolin, lost soul! - joyfully respond in the cabin.
- How, the missing one! .. Yes, we dangled all over Mother Russia! - Heading to Belyshev, explains Nevolin. - I report, commissar: our detachment returned without loss of people. On the way, we took the Kornilov armored train. Half a thousand miles chased after him ...
He sits down at the table.
- Brought "Aurora" bow from the Moscow workers. Now in Moscow the Soviet power is on firm feet. True, we were a little late because of that armored train. He blocked the way. Didn't know about it right away. At first, the railway workers did not want to take us anywhere. When our detachment arrived at the station, two thousand people gathered on the square. And the station is closed. At the door some kind of beetle-compromiser sticks out and keeps talking: the railway workers, they say, neither for the Bolsheviks, nor for Kerensky, and they will not take us to Moscow. Of course, everyone was angry. Then, from another door, the locomotive stoker called us: “Here, comrades! We'll take you wherever you need: to Moscow, to Sevastopol, to Vladivostok! .. ”They rushed through that door and sat down in echelons: in the first - the Red Guards from the Putilov factory and seventy-five people from our cruiser; in others - from the Vyborg side, Kolpin-tsy and a detachment from the Second Baltic crew. We hurry the railroad workers: “Take it quickly, otherwise the junkers take over in Moscow. The Kremlin was captured!..” The railway authorities do not give locomotives. I had to threaten. Locomotives were found... In Lyuban we learn: an armored train with Kornilovites is heading towards from Novgorod. Already left Chudo-vo station. They began to wonder how to please dear guests ... We found two railway platforms from under the coal, lined the walls with sleepers and sandbags, attached six machine guns from above, attached three heating trucks to the platforms - and our armored train is ready. Sixty men were assigned to him, little by little from all the detachments. Six Aurors. Again stalled due to sabotage. None of the locomotive drivers wants to go with us: their own skin is more expensive. Finally got one. They gave him an assistant and to control a fighting guy, a Putilov man. Rushed forward. Echelons are behind us. After a couple of spans, a railway telegraph operator thrusts a note at us. Read. It contains a few words about the Kornilov armored train: they say, while we were preparing in Lyuban, the venerable gentlemen turned back to Bologoy ...
- Here the bear disease attacked the gentlemen! Lukichev laughs.
- It is clear, and we pressed on. We catch up little by little. Then they started blowing up the rails. We nearly crashed twice. Thanks to the switchmen: they warned us ... We rolled up to Bologoye, and there was another piece of news: the armored train turned onto the Polotsk branch line. We are behind him! The Kornilovites ruined the rails here too. We're still chasing. As they backfired on us, so they responded. At the Kuzhenkino station, the soldiers who guarded the military warehouses helped us in time: they dismantled the rails in front of the Kornilovites. They wanted to derail us, but they almost fell off themselves. In a word, they overtook them. Let's go to that armored train behind the bushes. Look, it's serious business. The armored train is not like ours, but a real one. The locomotive and wagons are armored, there are four cannons and sixteen machine guns in the towers against our six. And the team on it is much against ours! (After, when they surrendered, I counted: one hundred and fifty people!) Of course, they cannot be dealt with until the echelons arrive in time. They began to think. They sent a delegation to them. Anatoly Zheleznyakov from the "Amur" and I went. We demand: "Hand over the armored train and weapons..."
- Commissioner! - having slightly opened the door, the watchman interrupts Nevolin. - Package from Smolny.
Belyshev carefully opens the envelope.
“Order, comrades,” he announces quietly. - Such a thing ... That night, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Comrade Lenin, and the People's Commissar, Comrade Stalin, summoned Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin to a direct wire for negotiations. They suggested that he immediately begin peace negotiations with the governments fighting against us and immediately end the war. And Dukhonin declared that he did not recognize Soviet power. The Council of People's Commissars removed Dukhonin, but Dukhonin was at headquarters, and the headquarters was in Mogilev. The Military Revolutionary Committee instructs us, "Aurora", to allocate three platoons for a trip to Mogilev. We must tell the truth to the Mogilev garrison and arrest Dukhonin... Let's go to the cockpit.
He leaves the cabin, forgetting about the unfinished report.
Only four days later, after the suppression of the counter-revolutionary rebellion by Dukhonin and the headquarters, the commissar again begins to sum up the results of the first days of the conquest of power.
Leaning over the table, he concludes the report with stingy words, the simplicity and businesslike modesty of which are inherent in the harsh time of the revolution:
“... At the present time, although life goes on in the usual way, the crew and the ship every minute
but can be brought to full combat readiness.
And over the Neva, over Russia, over the world immersed in the darkness of the night, the stormy October wind hums victoriously.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE SHIP
The most important dates in the history of the red banner cruiser "Aurora"
May 23, 1897. A three-screw cruiser of the first rank was laid down at the shipyard of the New Admiralty in St. Petersburg. In honor of sailing frigate, which became famous for the defense of Kamchatka against the Anglo-French invaders in 1854, the cruiser was given the same name as the frigate wore: Aurora.
May 1900 The hull of the new ship was launched at the mouth of the Neva.
1900 - 1903 years. Work is underway on the installation of mechanisms, equipment, armament, and decoration of the cruiser's premises.
July 16, 1903. The construction of the ship is completed. On the Aurora, the naval ensign was raised.
1904 The first long-distance voyage of the Aurora. The cruiser "Aurora" is included in the detachment sent to Port Arthur to reinforce the Pacific squadron.
May 14, 1905. "Aurora" participates in the Tsushima battle. Together with the crew of the cruiser Oleg, he enters into battle with nine Japanese cruisers, inflicts damage on them and avoids capture.
The Tsushima battle, which ended in the defeat of the tsarist fleet sent to the Pacific Ocean, ended the Russo-Japanese war.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, in his article on the defeat at Tsushima, wrote: “The autocracy, precisely in an avant-garde way, threw the people into an absurd and shameful war. It now faces a well-deserved end... The war turned out to be a formidable judgment. The people have already pronounced their judgment on this government of robbers. The revolution will carry out this sentence."
February 1906. Aurora is returning to the Baltic.
September 1909. "Aurora" leaves for the second long-distance voyage - in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
March 1911. While moored in the harbor of the city of Messina (Sicily island), the Aurora team extinguishes a huge fire that has arisen in the city. The population of Messina is grateful to the team.
September 1911 "Aurora" goes on the third foreign voyage - from Kronstadt to the ports of the Mediterranean Sea.
1912 The cruiser crosses the equator twice, enters Indochina and the island of Java.
1914 - 1916 years. During the first imperialist war, the Aurora was at the forefront of the Baltic Fleet, on patrol. During these years, on many ships, including the Aurora, the Bolsheviks created revolutionary circles and groups, which, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, prepared sailors for an armed uprising against tsarism.
November 1916. The ship goes to Petrograd for repairs and moored at the Franco-Russian plant. Just a few hours before the cruiser arrived at the factory berth, 130 thousand Petrograd workers, at the call of the Petrograd Bolshevik Committee, went on strike in protest against the upcoming trial of the arrested sailors - members of the Kronstadt Bolshevik organization.
The sailors of the Aurora found themselves in the midst of events that took place not only in Petrograd, but throughout the country. Everyday communication with the Petrograd workers contributed to the growth of the revolutionary mood of the team.
February 26, 1917. The sailors seize the ship in their hands And raise the red flag of revolution above it. However, there is still a long road ahead of the struggle against the capitalists and landlords.
October 25 (November 7), 1917. At 3:30 in the morning, following the instructions of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the cruiser Aurora anchored at the Nikolaevsky Bridge on the Neva. The Aurora's guns are aimed at the Winter Palace.
At 8:45 am, two detachments were sent ashore for reconnaissance from the cruiser.
At 12:20 p.m., the third and fourth detachments were sent to the city.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the radio operator receives an appeal from the Military Revolutionary Committee that the Provisional Government has been overthrown.
At 19 o'clock the fifth detachment was sent ashore.
At 8:35 p.m., a messenger transmits an order from the Military Revolutionary Committee on the exact date for the assault on the Winter Palace.
At 9:40 p.m., according to the order of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Aurora fires a simulated shot at the Winter Palace, signifying the start of the assault.
December 1917. A detachment was sent from the Aurora to the Southern Front, near Balashov, against the White Guards. The rest of the Aurors are guarding Petrograd; some of them work as commissars for the nationalization of enterprises.
By order of the naval authorities, the cruiser, along with others
ships go to sea for trial and after a short stay in Helsingfors returns to Kronstadt, then on December 27 passes to Petrograd. The path of the cruiser is difficult: the Gulf of Finland and the Neva are ice-bound.
January 1918. The counter-revolutionaries sent a scoundrel to the Aurora, who put poison in the food. About a hundred Aurors fell seriously ill.
March 1918. A new attempt by counter-revolutionaries to disable the cruiser. The "infernal machine" was brought to the ship. The sailors found her. Explosion prevented.
August 1918. An expeditionary detachment of the Baltics was sent to defend the Soviet North from the invaders. The detachment includes a platoon of Aurora.
The second group of Aurora sailors voluntarily goes to the front against Kaledin.
1918 Many Aurors are fighting on different fronts against the Whites. In this regard, the Kronstadt Military Revolutionary Committee orders the Aurora to be mothballed (long-term storage).
June 1923. The newly renovated Aurora is back in service. Together with the old Aurors who returned from the fronts civil war, a young replenishment comes to the ship, mostly Komsomol members.
July 1923. During a stop in Kronstadt at Fort Pavel, a mine accidentally lights up. Its explosion threatens the powder magazines and ammunition of the other forts. A six-boat was lowered from the Aurora to prevent a catastrophe. The mine exploded already when it was carried a long distance from the fort. Four Aurors were killed and the rest badly wounded, but the forts were spared.
August 1923. The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR takes patronage over the cruiser "Aurora".
June 1924. "Aurora" is the first ship of the Soviet Navy, which went on a foreign voyage (around Scandinavia).
November 1927. The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR decided to award the cruiser Aurora with the Order of the Red Banner.
1931 - 1941 years. Every year on the cruiser "Aurora" future commanders of the fleet undergo "practice.
1941 - 1944 years. The next release of cadets leaves the cruiser directly into battle to defend Leningrad from the Nazis. The artillery was removed from the ship and installed at the Pulkovo Heights, the Aurora tank gun was installed on the Baltiets armored train. The Nazis are mercilessly bombarding the silent ship and dropping more than one ton of bombs on it.
1945 The ship has been refurbished. By decision of the Leningrad Council, after repairs, the Aurora will be placed on the Neva forever, as a monument, and transferred to the Nakhimov School.
1946 A memorial plaque removed during the war with the inscription is again attached to the turret of the tank gun of the ship:
“The cruiser Aurora, with the thunder of its cannons aimed at the Winter Palace, announced on October 25 the beginning of a new era - the era of the Great Socialist Revolution.”
1947 On the day of the thirtieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the new generation of Aurora sailors was visited by honorary Aurors - the first commissar of the ship A.V. Belyshev, now the chief mechanic of the Lenenergo repair plant, and T.I. Lipatov.
Addressing the sailors, A. V. Belyshev said: “Comrade Aurors! Sons and grandchildren! Our descendants, successors and bearers of the Bolshevik traditions of Aurora! Be worthy of your grandfathers and fathers. Remember that the traditions of the Aurora are the traditions of the entire Soviet Navy: loyalty to the Soviet government, our socialist homeland, the Lenin-Stalin party. The future is yours!”
November 17, 1948. On this day, the red banner cruiser "Aurora", overhauled by Leningrad ship repairmen, made its last transition: up the Neva, to the place of eternal parking - near the Leningrad Nakhimov School.
From now on, the immortal ship of the revolution, which heralded the beginning of a new era, has become a school of practice for Nakhimov graduates - future Soviet sailors and naval commanders.
Book text recognition from images (OCR) - creative studio BK-MTGC.