The blank shot that signaled the launching of the Revolution in 1917 was fired from the main gun of this 19th century battleship, moored in the Neva River. A shot one of the forward ship's guns gave the signal for the storming of the Winter palace, which was being used as a residence by the democratic, but largely ineffective Provisional Government. The next day, Lenin announced the beginning of the communist era from its radio-cabin.

The CRUISER AURORA

Cruiser Aurora is veteran ship of the Russian Navy. Built in St.Petersburg between 1897 and 1900, it took an active part in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and participated in the Tsusima battle, in which most of Russia's Pacific fleet was destroyed.

During World War II and the 900-day Siege of Leningrad the guns of the ship were taken down and used on the front line of the city's defenses. Then the Russians sank it to protect it from German bombs.

The historical ship Aurora has been turned into a museum and is docked in the Bolshaya Nevka just a few hundred yards upstream from the Cabin of Peter the Great, opposite the "St.Petersburg" Hotel. After the war the ship was carefully restored and painted up in awfully pretty colors and training ship for cadets from the nearby Nakhimov Navy School. Recent reconstruction has made the ship look like an oversized toy. Admission is free.

Location: Petrovskaia Naberezhnaia (Embankment), Metro: Gorkovskaya.

POLITICALLY ACTIVE STATUES
St.Petersburg celebrated its 290th birthday in 1993 by replacing a phallic Lenin bust in the Moscow Train Station with a statue of Peter the Great, and it probably won't be too long before the other Lenins are moved to museums or melted down to make metro tokens. Lenin buffs can see a slightly rotund version of the Big Bolshy in front of the Warsaw Train Station pointing the way to the city center. Perhaps the best Lenin is on Moskovsky Prospekt in front of a classically nightmarish Stalin building where a sixteen-meter tall Lenin daintily proffers his cap to the proletariat. Traditionalists can see the statues of Marx and Engels in the park between the Smolny (where there is another fine Lenin statue as well) and Proletarian Dictatorship Square. The Smolny Institute, built in 1806-1808 by architect Quarenghi, was headquarters of the revolution of 1917.

POLITICALY ACTIVE STATUES

Finland Station (Finlyandsky vokzal) is where, in 1917, Lenin arrived from exile in Switzerland (having ridden in a sealed railway carriage through Germany, Sweden and Finland) and gave his legendary speech from the top of an armored car, in the square where his statue now stands. After fleeing a second time he again arrived here from Finland, this time disguised as a rail fireman, and the locomotive he rode in is displayed on the platform. It's not really the same station, having been rebuilt following WWII. Outside the Finland Train Station is a stirring depiction of a speech Lenin. Note he is pointing across the river to a tall orange building with a large antenna - this is the Bolshoi Dom, the local headquarters of the Interior Ministry and the KGB.

PISKARIOVSKOYE CEMETERY
The sobering Piskariovskoye Cemetery is a poignant reminder of the scale of the tragedy the city lived through during the Second World War and (the 900-day Siege of Leningrad). For over 2 and a half years the Nazis kept Leningrad under siege, preventing any movement of people, food or armaments, but despite the horrors experienced by the city's residents, Leningrad did not surrender. In St.Petersburg we take pride in the fact that during almost 300 years of the city's history enemy forces have never invaded it.

Hundreds of thousands of people died in the city (mostly of cold and starvation) during the siege. About half a million of them, including 420,000 civilians, are buried in the cemetery's 186 mass graves. The slightly raised mounds are marked by year and a long alley leads the visitor to a monument with a statue of the Motherland, portrayed as a grieving woman. Many of St Petersburg families come to the cemetery once or twice a year to bring flowers and pay tribute to the city's defenders, perhaps to members of their own family, who died during the Siege, which the Russians call Blokada.

Near the entrance there is an eternal flame, where everyone stops and gives a minute's silence in mourning for all those lost during the siege and two pavilions, housing an exhibit of moving photographs and documents depicting the siege. During summer time Russians drop coins into the small ponds in the cemetery, which go towards the maintenance of the site.

Location: Prospekt Nepokorionnykh.

MONUMENT TO THE HEROIC DEFENDERS OF LENINGRAD
This large monument a few hundred meters farther greets travelers arriving from the airport or coming in by car from the south. Unveiled on V-E Day in 1975, the monument features classic socialist-style inspirational statues of soldiers and civilians in dramatic poses as well as a somber underground museum dedicated to the plight of Leningrad during WWII and the siege war.

FIELD OF MARS
During the 1917 February Revolution a bunch of people were heroically killed here which led the Bolsheviks (who never needed much encouragement to build monuments glorifying the Revolution) to construct the existing memorial and eternal flame and to rename the field "Victims' of the Revolution Square". The name did not catch on and after a few years the square once again became a field. The Bolsheviks buried here are less famous than those resting in Moscow's Red Square but were important enough to have had some factories and streets named after them.

FIELD OF MARS

Formerly the Poteshnoye pole (old Russian for "Field of Fun"), the Field of Mars came into being in 1710. Later, when Empress Elizabeth built her palace on the site of the present Engineer's Castle, the field came to be known as Tsarina's Meadow ("Tsaritsyn lug"). Paul I, a great lover of military formations, made it into military parade and training ground, from which the name "Field of Mars" arose.

Metro: Nevsky Prospekt/Gostiny Dvor.

RAZLIV
A must for diehard Lenin buffs. Here in July and August 1917 Vladimir Ilyich took refuge from the provisional government after the disastrous "July Days", Lenin's premature putsch. Taking no chances, Lenin disguised himself with a natty wig and lived for a while in the barn of Nikolai Yemelyanov, a Bolshevik worker from nearby Sestroretsk. After a short time he moved across the lake to a haystack, built especially for him by Yemelyanov. The tactics worked; the provisional government couldn't find the noodle in the haystack. Both barn and stack are museum pieces for the time being.

How to get there: Subway train from Finlandsky Railway Station in the direction of Sestroretsk, get off at Razliv.