Aurora 44 gun frigate plans. "Aurora" arrived in Kamchatka. During the entire defense of Petropavlovsk

Chapter fifteen

FRIGATE "AURORA"

...and they themselves died for the Russian land...

A Word about Igor's Campaign

The frigate "Aurora" was getting closer and closer to Petropavlovsk. They began to remove the sails on it. People were visible on the huge yards, on the shrouds and on the deck, officers on the poop deck, and a boat with Gubarev coming alongside.

Zavoiko went home to change clothes.

“Thank God, Yulechka,” he said, entering his wife in full uniform with orders. “Now we’ll see how the British and French come.” Anyone else in my place, having such a garrison and this “Aurora”, that is, one ship and a lack of food, would have grabbed his hair at the thought of how he would have to defend himself. And I say: thank God, because the ship is sailing. Not chatterboxes and crazy people, but only Zavoiko will take the rap for everyone and fight, which I am ready for, although I don’t say big words and don’t make great discoveries. I am ready to lay down my head, and let the children not be ashamed of their father if he is reproached after death.

- Why will they reproach you? – Yulia Egorovna was wary.

She was disturbed by her husband's similar reasoning. It seemed that he was trying to justify himself, responding to some kind of inner voice.

“No, Yulechka,” he said stubbornly, “I don’t feel guilty about anything and I can die calmly, and you don’t have to worry.” So I'm going to Aurora. Thank God she came. And when the naked man is given only a shirt, he feels dressed, but the rich man doesn’t have enough of a dozen, and he wants to take the last thing from his neighbor! I feel like I'm shod and dressed. Don’t forget that now my own nephew, now midshipman Nikolai Fesun, has arrived, and I am very happy about this, although everyone who arrived on it is my family!

Yulia Egorovna is also happy. Fesun, the son of a small nobleman from Ukraine, with the help of his uncle Ferdinand Petrovich, entered the naval corps and studied well. Yulia Egorovna felt to some extent this boy’s benefactor.

Zavoiko went, but stopped at the door and, turning, spoke again heatedly:

- But, Yulenka, I, like Kutuzov, will say that the enemies attacked the wrong person. I will not give up and will raise all the Kamchadals, and we will start a war here that will harm the enemy. The British will not be happy to see me yet!

Knowing that the entire population of Kamchatka consists of natural hunters, excellent shooters, Zavoiko sent his officials everywhere, even beyond the ridge, into the valley of the Kamchatka River, with orders for everyone to become volunteers.

- And now such help! Frigate! There are four hundred crew members on it!

And Yulia Egorovna was thinking about how useful her dairy farm is now. The husband often scolds his relatives, but if not for them, if not for family ties, then much, much would not have been possible to do. After all, if it weren’t for the uncle and his name, then the government would probably never have given the husband the funds to buy livestock. The husband, with all his inhuman energy, would hardly have been able to accomplish everything so quickly if the Company had not come to his aid with its funds and ships. At the same time, she understood perfectly well that if her husband were not here, none of the Company’s funds and ships would mean absolutely nothing. And she was again proud of her “old husband,” as she called Vasily Stepanovich.

... Between huge volcanoes, the tops of which are sometimes covered in snow, and the slopes are covered in dense, spreading forests, lies the widest Avachinskaya Bay. Sounding rivers with clear water run down to it through wide wooded valleys.

Behind the ridge of low hills, moving away from the hardened shore, there is a bucket - an internal bay, that is, a small bay in a huge bay. Petropavlovsk perched on the bank of the bucket. It would look just like a small Kamchadal village if it weren’t for the governor’s house with birch trees in the garden. Diagonally there is a church, old, wooden, darkened by the rains, below there is a warehouse and piers. A little further, where the bucket buried itself in the shore between the isthmus and the mainland, there is a warehouse and a new barracks. To the side is an American store.

"Aurora" entered the bucket. Boats with ordinary people surrounded her. Buckets and jugs of milk, herbs and berries were served on board.

- Brilliant ship! - said the crowded officials.

Gubarev returned on the boat and called the governor aside. He looked embarrassed, and he whispered for a long time about something with Zavoiko. Vasily Stepanovich quickly got into the boat. The rowers leaned on their oars. A few minutes later he was climbing the ladder onto the frigate.

Soon stretchers with people began to be lowered from this shiny ship into boats.

The commander of the Aurora, captain of the second rank Ivan Nikolaevich Izylmetyev, with a gloomy look of gray eyes, half-closed from fatigue and illness, told Vasily Stepanovich for a long time what happened to the Aurora.

Almost everyone on the ship is sick with scurvy. Some are hard, others are easier, but there are almost no completely healthy people. The captain himself also feels unwell.

His frigate, having rounded Cape Horn at the stormiest time of the year, did not proceed to Valparaiso as ordered. The captain, knowing that an English squadron was stationed there, went to the port of Callao, on the South American coast. But a whole united French-British squadron just happened to be in Callao, waiting from Panama along the dry route for news from Europe about the beginning of the war with Russia, which was supposed to be delivered across the Atlantic Ocean by a mail steamer.

– We didn’t wait and ran into it! - said Ivan Nikolaevich. “But even in Callao nothing was known about the war!”

– So nothing is known anywhere! - said Zavoiko.

The British and French were delighted at the arrival of the Russian ship. If news of the start of war had arrived across the isthmus, the frigate Aurora would have immediately become their prey.

Izylmetyev resorted to cunning. He ordered his officers to have friendly meetings with English and French officers, to say that our ship had serious damage, it would have to be thoroughly repaired, and that the ship was generally bad, in vain it had been sent on such a long voyage that back in 1846, English newspapers in Plymouth warned about this is when Grand Duke Constantine arrived in England on the Aurora.

The British and French were very flattered to take control of the frigate on which the king's son had once been raised. Although they were sure that it was indeed a worthless rotten vessel.

Allied officers visited the Aurora, and the Russians, in turn, visited them. It seemed that both of them were very happy; young officers from all the ships went together for festivities. Meanwhile, the British and French secretly watched what was happening on the Russian ship. And everyone who remained on the Aurora, also secretly, feverishly prepared the ship for the huge passage across the Pacific Ocean. Ivan Nikolayevich was in a hurry, rushing people, skillfully pretending when meeting with foreigners that everything was in disarray, he even started negotiations with representatives of one of the companies in Callao about repairing the frigate, for which he himself went ashore. And at dawn the next day, when there were several hours left before the arrival of the company's representatives, the frigate raised the sails and, with a fair wind, quickly set out to sea.

“We barely left Callao,” said Izylmetyev, sitting in his cabin opposite Vasily Stepanovich and wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. As if he had just escaped from the enemy himself.

“So I’m no better off, Ivan Nikolaevich, and I also have no food, although wild garlic grows on the hills and there are bears that we kill. And although we do not have flour, we do not lose heart, and with wild garlic and milk we will put your entire team on their feet. And we’ll slaughter a few bulls and wild boars for you! Now tell me, what do you know, what kind of enemy ships will come to Kamchatka? Soon? Where is the squadron that was stationed in Callao?

According to Izylmetyev, the allies were waiting for reinforcements from other ships. All these issues were discussed in the captain's cabin, and then on shore, in the governor's office.

And one after another, the boats left the Aurora... Unhealthy, tired, half-withered from hunger, but perfumed, in new shiny uniforms, the young officers drove ashore, heading for lunch at the governor’s house.

Then the boats with the sick and dying came again. Soldiers with stretchers were waiting for them on the shore.

- That's what we've been waiting for! - the townsfolk said in the crowd.

There was a gloomy silence on the shore. Occasionally moans and sighs were heard.

A sad line of stretchers reached the town. The sick were ordered to be placed in the houses of ordinary people, and Gubarev was already going around and appointing who and how many.

Conversations in Vasily Stepanovich's office continued.

– I already have a plan on how to heal your entire team, and then how to defend Petropavlovsk with joint forces.

“But the ship must go to De-Kastri.”

– So I want to tell you that “Aurora” will not go anywhere from Petropavlovsk. I, as governor and commander of all naval forces, order you to stay here and, together with the garrison of the city, take measures to protect against the enemy!

Ivan Nikolaevich, standing up slightly, bowed respectfully, as if showing that he was not going to argue and took the order for granted and agreed with Zavoiko not only as a governor, but also in essence. Of course, there is little joy for one ship to withstand a battle with an entire squadron. But he understood that Zavoiko had no choice but to give such an order and defend himself to the last drop of blood. Izylmetyev also understood that he did not dare insist on leaving his ship for De-Kastri, not only because he was obliged to carry out the order given so firmly and decisively. Duty and honor obliged him not to leave the city and port, which Zavoiko was ready to defend with such determination and courage.

- But what if there is an order from Muravyov? – asked Ivan Nikolaevich.

Zavoiko remained silent. He considered himself entitled to hide the fact that such an order already existed.

- “Aurora” won’t go anywhere! - he said decisively. – I take responsibility.

He also added that the departure of the Aurora would be tantamount to the death of the city, and then began to explain the defense plan for Petropavlovsk. Zavoiko now intended to build new fortifications. Izylmetyev asked for details. Zavoiko said that at least five batteries would have to be built. They discussed what supplies the city garrison would have. Zavoiko asked how many rifles, gunpowder and cannons were on the Aurora.

“But in order to build fortifications,” said Izylmetyev, “we need, first of all, healthy hands.” And the team... - He spread his hands, expressing confusion on his face.

He seemed to want to say that now everything depends on what Kamchatka is like, whether it can give people health.

- So I know how to get your entire team back on their feet in a few days.

– Unfortunately, there are no such means, Vasily Stepanovich!

- So you don’t know Kamchatka then! And you can't tell me that. Forty miles from here there is Paratunka, and there are healing waters there. I have already sent orders to the Kamchadals to take their cows there. And when a sick sailor bathes in hot healing water and drinks milk, then with the health of a Russian person he will very quickly get back on his feet. Not far from this Paratunka on the Avacha River there is my wife’s own dairy farm. Everything possible from my farm will be provided to your team. For now we will reinforce the people here, and in two days we will transport them to Paratunka on boats and on board. There will be milk, healing springs, wild garlic, and people will recover as they have never recovered anywhere, and Kamchatka will be glorified all over the world...

Izylmetyev was a man of great dignity, who, however, was alien to false pride, and therefore he usually calmly obeyed any reasonable order from his superiors, being able to show that this did not affect his dignity even if the meaning of the order contradicted Izylmetyev’s wishes.

– But who will guard the ship and the city if, as you say, the entire population will transport the sick?

“And in this case, I will force all my officials to volunteer, I will put them in front of the guns and put guns in their hands.” People on Paratunka will recover quickly. We take risks, but as they say, risk is a noble cause.

Izylmetyev agreed that Zavoiko’s plan was good and that this was the only way out. Let's go have lunch. Almost all the officers of the frigate were in the living room. Zavoiko introduced midshipman Fesun to his wife. Before this, the general had seen him on the ship, where his nephew, flushed to the ears, almost threw himself on his uncle’s neck.

“Yes, this is my own nephew,” the governor announced, “and therefore,” he said, turning to the captain, “I ask you, Ivan Nikolaevich, to demand doubly from him, so that he knows the service.”

Blue-eyed, ruddy Fesun beamed with happiness that everyone could see how the governor was with him and that they were talking about him. He was already shuffling in front of his auntie and kissing her hand.

“This is where we happened to meet,” Vasily Stepanovich told him. “Maybe we’ll have to die together for the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland!”

At the table, Yulia Egorovna sat next to Alexander Petrovich Maksutov, a tall, handsome, dark-skinned officer.

– Brother Dmitry wrote to me so much about you! - he said to his cousin.

Yulia Egorovna smiled kindly:

- Yes, he is a frequent guest with us.

- What a pity that I won’t see him.

- So you will see him again! – Vasily Stepanovich said decisively. -What am I guaranteeing!

“My cousins ​​seem to be painfully in love with each other! I have noticed more than once that such love is a harbinger of some tragic events,” thought Yulia Egorovna.

The next morning, Zavoiko and Izylmetyev, taking Gubarev and Maksutov with them, went to inspect the area. It was decided to build a total of six batteries, including those already started. Disarm one side of the Aurora and place the guns on the batteries. The second side of the “Aurora” will fire at the enemy, standing behind the spit that stretches almost across the entire small bay.

“And behind this spit it will be half-closed from cannonballs and bombs, like behind the best parapet,” said Vasily Stepanovich, standing on a sand spit among the Bucket.

Izylmetyev and this time slightly bowed his balding head.

“Yes, we’ll put the ship in the harbor like a floating battery,” said Zavoiko.

“The main thing now is not guns, but people,” noted Ivan Nikolaevich. “If only they get better quickly.”

We went to the hospital, visited the seriously ill, and then went into the houses of ordinary people where the mildly ill were housed. Many sailors felt much better on shore.

– The general promises to feed you milk! – the sick Aurors said to their commander.

“I don’t keep all the stock in one place,” Zavoiko explained. – Half of my cows are in the city, and half are on the farm, and it’s like a fortress there. With city cows we will correct the people here. The townsfolk will give them everything they can.

... In the birch garden, behind a low fence, Yulia Egorovna discussed with the young officers which play to choose for an amateur performance.

– War is just around the corner, and young people are going to have fun! - Zavoiko exclaimed, entering the garden with Izylmetyev. - Really, this is the time and place to organize balls, when the gentlemen officers return from Paratunka. These balls will be better than medicines and wild garlic for young people, which I know from myself, since I was young myself.

The next day, whole lines of boats and Kamchadal boats under sail left the shore, taking the sick to Paratunka.

The white-sailed, three-masted, 56-gun frigate “Aurora” left the Kronstadt roadstead on August 21, 1853. Its commander, captain-lieutenant Ivan Nikolaevich Izylmetyev, was an experienced sailor. He led the Aurora on a long voyage to the eastern shores of Russia for their protection. In those days in St. Petersburg they said that Türkiye, England and France were preparing for military action against Russia.

While the diplomats had not exhausted their capabilities, the Aurora slipped past the English and French shores. The crew met 1854 in the southern hemisphere, and on March 13 the frigate completed the difficult rounding of Cape Horn. The Aurora, caught by a fair current and a steady trade wind from the southwest, arrived at the Peruvian port of Callao on the twentieth day.

The team had to rest, replenish provisions, and most importantly, they were waiting for mail from St. Petersburg. The presence of English and French frigates flying the admiral’s flags in the bay was unexpected. Having anchored at a distance from them, a boat was lowered from the Aurora. Captain-Lieutenant Izylmetyev went to make the required visits.

The English Rear Admiral D. Price on the frigate “President” was restrained to the point of coldness. Ivan Nikolaevich left him with a heavy heart. The Frenchman de Pointe on La Forte received the Russian commander kindly and very politely. Both admirals made return visits. This softened Izylmetyev’s wariness. He did not know what both admirals already knew: Russia had been at war with Turkey for more than a month. The Englishman Price insisted on capturing the Russian frigate, but De Pointe, citing the lack of official news about the start of the war of their states against Russia, considered hostile actions unacceptable. We were waiting for the official dispatch. They didn’t know about these negotiations at Aurora.

In the letters received, the Naval Ministry notified Izylmetyev of a possible imminent severance of relations between Russia and England. But these letters left St. Petersburg in the first half of February, and a lot could have changed in two months. Nevertheless, Izylmetyev accelerated the preparation of the Aurora for the passage to Russian seas, although the ship's work seemed to be going according to a stuck schedule. The Russian frigate, apparently, was in no hurry to leave. But this was only an appearance.

On April 14, the early morning began with low fog. When the sun rose, through the gaps in the foggy veil, the British and French saw through telescopes that in a few minutes the sailors of the Aurora set the sails and quickly raised the anchor. The ship made a turn and disappeared over the horizon.

Rear Admiral D. Price was furious: easy prey had escaped. Indignation against the French associate intensified when two weeks later the steamship Virago brought official news, dated March 28, that war had already been declared on Russia.

Only three weeks after the Aurora left, the frigates were able to begin the pursuit. In vain they searched for the Russian frigate among the Pacific islands. "Aurora" disappeared. The Russian captain-lieutenant outwitted two rear admirals. Price could not forgive him, and most importantly himself, for this.

“Aurora,” meanwhile, was heading northwest. The Passat was quite fresh. The frigate was scooping with its sides. The rooms became damp and cold. We started getting scurvy. Thirteen people died on the way from Callao. The commander himself also fell ill. In sixty-six days, having traveled 9,000 nautical miles without calling at ports, the Aurora arrived in Petropavlovsk on June 19. 196 patients were taken to a coastal hospital. Two months after their recovery and repair of the frigate, they planned to start cruising on August 18 in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and at the mouth of the Amur. But events turned out differently.

On July 14, 1854, the chief commander of the Petropavlovsk port, Vasily Stepanovich Zavoiko, notified the commander of the Aurora that he had received news from the American consul: Russia had declared war on England and France. A steamer was sent from England to form a squadron to blockade Russian ports in the Pacific Ocean. Zavoiko ordered: “to be in perfect readiness to repel the attack of enemy ships.” During the Aurora's stay in the port, a small garrison, with the help of some of its cannons mounted on quickly built batteries, was able to create an artillery defense system.

On August 17, the combined Anglo-French squadron arrived at the Petropavlovsk roadstead. A steamship, four frigates, a corvette and a brig were part of it. The next morning the rain stopped and it became calm. Rear Admiral D. Price decided to personally inspect and evaluate the port’s defenses on the steamship Virago. And, although the ship was flying an American flag, the Russian pilot who came out to meet him realized: this was the enemy.

The first to realize the tragic significance of the lost two months, the loss of surprise in the attack and the general dubiousness of victory over the Russians was Price himself. He knew that in England they would not forgive him for his miscalculations and slowness, as well as for the fact that back in June he had missed the Aurora. On the evening of August 18, the opponents exchanged several artillery shots for the first time. A day later, the admirals decided to land 600 troops. The defenders held out for almost eight hours, and the landing party returned to the ships at dusk. Admiral Parus's nerves could not stand all this. He shot himself.

The second assault on Petropavlovsk was commanded by the French Rear Admiral De Pointe. On August 24, after a powerful artillery shelling of Russian coastal batteries and ships, he landed about 700 troops. As a result of the fierce battle, the enemy lost more than 400 people wounded and killed and retreated to their ships, which were heavily damaged by Russian artillery.

For three days the enemy repaired everything that was possible. On the morning of August 27, having set sail discordantly, the squadron departed.

Letters and reports about victory and losses were sent to St. Petersburg from Petropavlovsk.

Defense experience formed the basis for strengthening artillery positions. Feverish work continued throughout the fall, because a second attack on the port was expected at any time. The garrison was in a hurry to prepare for the approaching winter. They built covered batteries with communication passages, three large barracks, and three officers' houses. The transports “Irtysh” and “Baikal”, the corvette “Olivutsa” and two boats arrived for the winter.

The winter passed quietly. Everyone became worried on March 3, 1855, when Captain Martynov brought an order from the governor of Eastern Siberia for the urgent evacuation of all residents, garrison and property. The Anglo-French squadron, now consisting of 26 ships, was preparing to attack the port.

Only V.S. Zavoiko knew the evacuation point. For his military actions last year, he was awarded the rank of rear admiral and the Order of St. George, lll degree. Awards were announced to many who distinguished themselves in those battles. But all this was not pleasing.

In a month of hard work, cannons and cannonballs were dug out from under the snow. Window frames, doors and even door hinges were removed from the buildings. Property and residents were still being loaded onto ships, and men were cutting a canal in the ice with long rip saws. By April 4, heavily laden ships were brought out into the open. The unarmed transports “Irtysh” and “Baikal” were the first to leave. Two days later, having taken the remnants of the garrison, the frigate “Aurora”, the corvette “Olivutsa”, boat No. 1 and the transport “Dvina” set off. The commanders were scheduled to meet in De-Kastri Bay.

The enemy squadron, having waited until the ice retreated in mid-April, arrived in Petropavlovsk. The surprise of the British knew no bounds: the “small Russian squadron” that wintered here disappeared. Deserted log walls of dwellings could be seen on the shore, but the English Admiral Stirling longed for a naval victory.

The English sailors were indignant... In search of the Russian squadron, Anglo-French ships rushed across the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Convinced of the futility of the search, Stirling allocated to his assistant Commodore Elliott the 40-gun frigate Sybill, the 17-gun screw corvette Hornet and the 12-gun brig Bittern and ordered to explore the Tartary Strait. And he himself went to Japan with other ships to rest.

Elliott's squadron rose north to De-Kastri Bay and, near its southern cape, without raising national flags, dropped anchor. The weather was disgusting. The fog and rain cleared up in the early morning of May 8th. Elliot felt surprised and scared: he looked through a telescope at an unknown squadron not far away. The frigate was identified as the Aurora, and nearby were the 20-gun corvette Olivutsa and the 10-gun transport Dvina. The transports “Irtysh” and “Baikal” and boat No. 1 did not have guns; they carried 282 passengers, but the British did not know this.

Six Russian pennants against three... Elliot decided to clarify the capabilities of the Russians. The English corvette began to approach the corvette Olivutsa. Cannon salvoes struck. The Olivuts fired quickly and quickly. A thunderous “Hurray” sounded from the Russian ships when the Hornet suddenly turned, and the next day the British weighed anchor and moved south towards the garrison.

Commodore Elliot sent a corvette for orders to Hakkodate, Japan, to Admiral Stirling, and he himself, in a brig with a frigate, blocked what he believed was a Russian squadron. Now she was in a trap!

Local residents informed V.S. Zavoiko that the estuary near Cape Lazarev was clear of ice. Cape Lazarev from De-Kastri Bay not far to the north. There, the shores of the Tatar Strait narrowed, leaving a narrow passage between the mainland and Sakhalin Island. That. That Sakhalin is an island was established back in 1848-1849 by Lieutenant Commander G.I. Nevelskoy. And the map was printed in 1848. And the depths in the strait have been measured and marked. Only the Russians kept this map secret. The British considered the Tatar Strait to be a gulf.

On May 15, Zavoiko gave the command for all ships to proceed carefully to the north, into the Amur Estuary. The fog hid this maneuver. Fourteen hours later, having finally waited for reinforcements, Commodore Elliott boldly entered De-Kastri at the head of a squadron of six ships. But... there were no Russians at the roadstead!

It took the English Parliament a long time to figure out all the mistakes of the admirals. In February 1856, parliamentary debates took place in London. Some believed that Elliott did the right thing by not attacking the Russians in an unfamiliar bay. Others accused Elliot and Stirling of cowardice and loss of vigilance, with which they shamefully humiliated and dishonored the British fleet. They demanded that they be subjected to a military trial. And only one speaker said with naive simplicity that “Elliot simply did not know that there was a passage to the north” from the Tartary Strait to the mouth of the Amur. Russian sailors knew how to keep state secrets.

Frigate "Aurora"

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. frigates were single military three-masted ships with full sails. The difference from other sailing ships was their smaller size and artillery armament. The main purpose of the frigates was long-range reconnaissance and cruising service, i.e. single combat operations on sea and ocean routes with the aim of destroying or capturing enemy merchant ships. The largest of them had up to 60 guns in their artillery. As a rule, they were built into the battle line and they were called linear frigates.

In Russia in 1805 introduced the rank of frigates, armed with 44 guns. Russian 44-gun frigates had a solid deck. In this they differed from the frigates of the 18th century, which were built with closed stern and bow ends, while the middle part of the upper deck was open. The new frigates included the frigate Aurora, which was built on the stocks of the Okhtinskaya shipyard in St. Petersburg. This ship covered itself with glory in the battles during the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1854.

In April 1854, the commander of the Russian frigate Aurora, Lieutenant Commander Izylmetyev, went out onto the deck of his ship and looked around the Peruvian port of Callao, which was located near the capital of the country, Lima, which was quickly plunging into twilight. Ivan Nikolaevich Izylmetyev was in a very bad mood. This was due to several circumstances: the shabby nature of the ship, which had traveled a long way from Portsmouth in England through the storms of the Atlantic here in Peru; and an unpleasant meeting on the roadstead with the Anglo-French squadron; and the fear that such a “rendezvous” could be disastrous for the Aurora...

For more than six months, Russia has been at war with Turkey,

which France and England strongly encouraged and supported. The Russian government, like the Russian sailors, no longer had any doubt that the British and French were about to declare war on Russia themselves. Soon it happened. The position of the Turks in Crimea became sharply complicated after the Battle of Sinop, which took place on November 18, 1853, in which the Turkish fleet was defeated and virtually destroyed. In the current situation, in April 1854, France and England decided to help Turkey by declaring war on Russia.

Frigate "Aurora"

The news of the outbreak of war had not yet reached Peru when the Aurora appeared there. But our sailors, on the one hand, and the French and British, on the other, rightly assumed that this message would not take long to arrive. That is why Izylmetyev and the entire crew of the Russian frigate made every effort to leave Peru as soon as possible, without waiting for news of the war. Repair work on the Aurora did not stop even at night; on the contrary, with the onset of darkness it became more intense. In just a few days, the crew intended to complete a huge amount of work. Under more favorable circumstances, solving such a task would have required at least a month. Meanwhile, the Aurora was monitored from the Mars of the French and English ships through telescopes, so as not to “miss out on some Russian trick.” Rear Admiral of the French Navy Fevrier de Pointe and English Rear Admiral Davis Price tried to supervise the work on the ship. They made “friendly visits” to the Russian frigate twice. With experienced eyes, looking around the premises and equipment of the ship, wondering how much time it will take the Russians to repair?

As soon as the “friends” approached board the Aurora

Izylmetyev gave the command to the boatswain to create a mess on the deck: lower the arbor so that its end dangled, lay a dilapidated, holey canvas on the deck, which acted as a sail being repaired, scatter the tool everywhere. And especially make sure that the sailors do not rush while working. The Frenchman and the Englishman left the frigate seemingly reassured - they say, the Russians still have a lot of work to do.

However, Price and de Pointe were not completely simpletons. Expecting a dispatch from day to day about the start of hostilities
with Russia, they decided to attack the Aurora immediately - on Wednesday, April 14, 1854.

On Tuesday morning, Izylmetyev carefully examined the frigate and was satisfied with the inspection: they did everything that was most necessary and that was within the power of the sailors. The sails and masts were repaired, the shrouds were replaced, the hull grooves were thoroughly caulked... That same evening, the commander of the Aurora visited the flagship of the English squadron, the 50-gun frigate President. Rear Admiral Price looked impressive and was very polite. Izylmetyev and several officers from his team tried to reciprocate. And already 4 hours after the visit, on the night of April 13-14, in the pre-dawn twilight and fog, the Russian frigate weighed anchor and, first with the help of boat oars, and then raising the sails, went out into the open Pacific Ocean. At dawn, Callao disappeared over the horizon, and the crew of the Aurora saw only the hazy line of the Andes and the sun rising over the water. The frigate headed for Petropavlovsk...

...By the end of May 1854, news of the war with France and England finally reached Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka. The commander of the military port of Petropavlovsk and concurrently the military governor of Kamchatka, Major General V.S. Zavoiko, received an official notification of this already in mid-June from the Russian Consul General in the United States. But back in March of the same year, 1854, a friendly message from the King of the Hawaiian Islands was delivered to the governor on an American whaling ship. Hawaiian King Kamehameha III warned V.S. Zavoiko in his letter that he had absolutely reliable information about the impending attack of the British and French on Petropavlovsk in the summer.

And Zavoiko, in order not to waste time, immediately began to equip coastal fortifications in Kamchatka. At the beginning of June, the frigate Aurora moored at the pier of Avachinskaya Bay. His voyage across three oceans ended at a record speed for those times - the frigate was at sea for just 66 days. The fastest was the voyage from Peru. Then Izylmetyev outwitted the Anglo-French naval commanders and took his ship from Callao to Petropavlovsk. Despite all the storms that blocked the frigate’s path at almost every mile, steadfastly fighting scurvy, which took many sailors during the voyage, the crew arrived in Kamchatka on time. The 300-man crew of the Aurora and its artillery greatly strengthened the garrison of Petropavlovsk.

By the end of July, the garrison of the Petropavlovsk port

together with the crews of all ships, it began to number 920 people. The entire population, including its surroundings (approximately 1,600 people), also participated in preparations for the defense of the city. Work was carried out around the clock, day and night, to construct and equip seven coastal batteries, which took almost two months. The frigate "Aurora" and the warship "Dvina" were anchored with their left sides facing the exit from the harbor. The starboard guns were removed from the ships to strengthen the shore batteries. The entrance to the harbor was blocked by a boom. Artillery covered Petropavlovsk like a horseshoe. At its right end, on the rocky coast of Mount Signalnaya, there was a battery that protected the entrance to the internal roadstead. And on the right, on the isthmus between the Nikolaevskaya and Signalnaya mountains, another battery was placed.

At 12 o'clock on August 17, 1854, keepers from forward posts at the lighthouses discovered a squadron of 6 ships. A combat alert was declared in the city. The defenders of Petropavlovsk took their places and began to tensely observe what was happening. The three-masted steamer separated from the squadron and began measuring the depths on the approaches to Signalnaya, as well as at the entrance to the harbor.

After the bot left the port,

the ship was running at full speed. On the morning of August 18, the squadron attempted to enter Avacha Bay. It consisted of the French frigate La Fort, which had 60-gun artillery, the corvette Eurydice, with 32 guns, and the 18-gun Obligado; the English frigate "President" (52 guns), the frigate "Pike" (44 guns) and also the steamer "Virago" (10 guns). The combined flotilla was commanded by the English Rear Admiral D. Price, the French detachment was commanded by Rear Admiral F. de Pointe. In total, the squadron had 216 guns, while the personnel numbered 2,600 people.

On the night of August 18-19, 1854, the British and French were preparing to attack the port and city. Fires were lit on the enemy ships. The decks of the enemy ships were already visible through telescopes. The movement on the quarterdeck became more active, and landing boats were seen lowering from the rostrum. The darkness of the moonless night was continually broken up by flares and flares. Bright yellow dots moved along the lead-black surface of the bay. These were enemy boats cruising from ship to ship. Most likely, they took depth measurements to find the route to Signal Mountain...

The next day, enemy cannons fired along the shore.

Rapid fire was fired from the ships. The eight cannons of the Russian coastal battery were fired in salvos by 80 (!) bomb and mortar guns from the French and British. The shelling of Russian batteries and the city took place for several hours on August 18 and 19. Meanwhile, the return fire of the Petropavlovsk artillery was more accurate: several bombs exploded on the deck of the Virago, damaging the foremast and pipe of the steamer; on the frigate "President", during a firefight, the crew had to urgently fasten the shrouds of the mainmast, damaged by Russian shells; holes appeared in the sides of enemy ships. This forced the Anglo-French squadron to hastily withdraw to sea on August 18 and 19.

On August 20, at approximately 8 o'clock in the morning, the enemy flotilla, commanded by Fevrier de Pointe (according to one hypothesis, Rear Admiral D. Price died on August 19, committing suicide) took a position behind Signal Mountain. Soon after this, they opened heavy fire on the first and fourth batteries of the defenders. The Russian sailors returned fire with stubborn composure and, with well-aimed shots, volley after volley inflicted damage on the enemy. But the attackers only intensified the onslaught. The first battery was literally strewn with enemy bombs. The vast majority of its guns were out of action.

Covered by frigates, 15 French rowing ships approached closer and closer to the shore. There were officers in the two boats ahead. The French sailors, sitting in tension, were ready at any moment to carry out their orders, clutching the fittings that glittered in the sun between their knees. One after another, the boats infiltrated into a place safe from Russian artillery shots. Her situation seemed hopeless. But our sailors left the battery only after 5 of its guns were disabled. The artillerymen moved to the fourth battery on the orders of V.S. Zavoiko.

The enemy's fire was transferred to this battery, the enemy ships intensified it even more, and enemy troops began to land on the shore. The French soon approached the positions of the first battery, where they immediately hoisted their flag.

As soon as the tricolor of the French flag

hanging over the battery left by the Petropavlovtsy, Lieutenant Captain I.N. Izylmetyev, the commander of the Aurora, received a signal from the commander of the garrison Zavoiko:

“The battery has fallen. Open fire!".

The artillery of the Aurora and Dvina fell on the enemy landing force. The French landing party lay down, hiding from the hurricane fire of Russian ships. Meanwhile, Kamchadals and Russian sailors quickly rushed to their positions, sliding down green slopes slippery with dew, aiming at the enemy as they went. They were seized by such an impulse and such a passionate desire to clash with the enemy in hand-to-hand combat that the battery was repulsed in bayonet fighting, and the French landing party, dropping their weapons in panic, fell head over heels towards the water and climbed into the boats, which hurriedly, one after another set sail.

One of the participants in that battle

later wrote: “Despite the small number of our garrison, despite the four times superior forces relative to all our united parties, the enemy retreated at a run and so quickly that before we took the battery they occupied, they were already in the boats.” All attempts by the British and French to land their troops south of the third battery that day were also repulsed. Tired of fruitless attacks, the enemy ships rained fire on the second battery, which had 11 guns and covered the entrance to Peter and Paul Bay. Over the next ten hours, Russian artillery fought an unequal battle with enemy ships. And its 80 guns could not suppress the fire of the coastal battery. As soon as any of the enemy ships approached it, accurate shots from Russian artillerymen hit it. On August 20, as darkness fell, the shooting subsided; the first onslaught of the enemy flotilla was successfully repulsed by the garrison of Petropavlovsk.

After this, the ships of the British and French stood in the roadstead for three days and were inaccessible to Russian guns. They patched numerous holes in the decks and sides, restored the masts, repaired the equipment... In the early morning of August 24, 1854, the enemy squadron attempted a new attack on Petropavlovsk. As soon as the morning fog cleared, the enemy ships began to move. The admiral's frigates, the French "La Fort" and the English "President", were taken in tow by the steamer "Virago". "Pike" separated from the squadron, and approaching the rocky slope of Signal Mountain stopped, as if deciding whether to turn left to the isthmus, or again attack the Cemetery Battery. After several minutes of enemy delay, the city’s defenders realized that he would attack Petropavlovsk from the north.

The enemy frigates approached the shore and froze

at a distance of four cable cables from it. Suddenly, the “President” barked a salvo of all its starboard guns! The next salvo, from La Fort, was no less deafening, and sounded like a close echo. The next moment, the battery under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Maksutov returned fire. And all five guns left their mark on the President. One of the salvos on the English frigate knocked down the gaff, damaged the shrouds and tore off the flag. And only then the French frigate got it.

Russian gunners fought with inimitable courage under a hail of cannonballs and heavy bombs. But the superiority of the enemy's artillery power was too great. Maksutov's battery fought for more than an hour and a half. At some point, only one gun remained in service. The battery commander sank a large boat with an enemy landing force with a well-aimed shot. And at the same moment the lieutenant felt a powerful shock. The impact of the cannonball threw him several steps, his right arm was torn off at the elbow.

Without stopping the shelling of the shore, the enemy launched an attack with the main landing forces. About 600 people landed north of Nikolskaya Mountain, in the area of ​​the 5th battery. The landing force was divided into 3 groups, two of which moved to Nikolskaya Mountain, and the third - straight to the city along the northern road. Another 250 people from the enemy landing landed at the 3rd battery. A little later they linked up with a group that was advancing from the north.

They came closer and closer to the city.

It seemed to them that a little more, a little more, and the Russians would surrender. And at these very moments, a barrage of grapeshot fire from the sixth battery fell on the enemy sailors and soldiers. This landing group had to retreat to the main forces of the enemy who had landed on the shore. Soon Nikolskaya Mountain, the dominant height above the port and the city, was captured by the enemy. Bullets whistled over the Dvina and Aurora as the enemy landing force fired at them from the isthmus. Now there is a real threat of the city being captured by the enemy.

"Deadly Battery" Historical reconstruction.

At this most critical moment of defense, Major General Zavoiko sent several units to the most dangerous directions. The most heroic moment of the entire defense of Petropavlovsk was the bayonet attack of Russian sailors and riflemen from the Dvina and Aurora on the Anglo-French landing party. Under a barrage of enemy bullets, about 300 Russian soldiers rushed at 850 enemy paratroopers. The Russian “Hurray!” echoed around like thunder. . A brutal hand-to-hand fight ensued. People clashed, clanging, crossing bayonets. The sailors from the Aurora in light canvas shirts walked forward non-stop, as if they were not threatened by either enemy bullets or their bayonets. And the enemy could not withstand this onslaught. The enemy paratroopers wavered, were overthrown and fled. The French and English rushed headlong, without making out the roads, driven by fear, to the shore, to their boats and, having sat in them, rowed with all their might, leaving for their ships.

During the entire defense of Petropavlovsk

Enemy losses amounted to 450 people, of which 273 were killed. The defenders of the port and city lost 32 killed and 64 wounded. The captured trophies included the banner of the English Marines, various weapons and... shackles that were intended for Russian prisoners, of whom, by the way, there were not a single person. “Only one Russian frigate and only a few batteries,” wrote the British United Service magazine in 1855, “remained invincible before the combined naval forces of France and England, and the two greatest naval powers in the world were put to shame by being defeated by a small Russian garrison.” .

On August 27, 1854, the defeated Anglo-French flotilla hastily left Avacha Bay and disappeared into the ocean.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Aurora
Service:	Russia
Sailing type	three-masted frigate
Home port	Kronstadt
Organization	Russian Imperial Navy
Manufacturer	Okhtenskaya shipyard
Shipmaster	I. A. Amosov
Construction has started	November 23, 1833
Launched	July 27, 1835
Removed from the fleet	April 8, 1861 Sold for scrap
Main characteristics
Displacement	1940 tons
Upper deck length	48.52 meters
Midship width	12.6 m
Draft	about 4 m
Interior depth	3.874 meters
Engines	sail
Crew	300 people
Armament
Total number of guns	56 guns (24-pounders)
Guns on the front deck	30 guns (24-pounder)
Guns on the quarterdeck	22 carronades (24-pounders)
Guns on the tank	2 carronades (24-lb) (and on the poop 2 carronades (24-pounders))

Laid down on November 23, 1833 at the Okhtensky shipyard. The construction was supervised by Lieutenant Colonel of the Corps of Naval Engineers I. A. Amosov. Launched on July 27, 1835, it became part of the Baltic Fleet. Referred to rank 44-gun frigates, but in fact had in service, at different times, from 54 to 58 guns (56 ord.; 58 ord.)

The Aurora was the last of the Russian military sailing ships to circumnavigate the world in the mid-19th century under the command of.

Among the officers of the frigate there were many future outstanding researchers and famous sailors: G. I. Nevelskoy, K. F. Litke, N. A. Fesun, M. P. Tirol and other leading people of their time.

The mystery of the name Aurora

There is an opinion that the name of the frigate was personally given by Emperor Nicholas I. Some sources claim that he ordered the new ship to be named “in honor of one of the most beautiful women in St. Petersburg” - Aurora Karlovna Demidova-Karamzina (née Baroness Schernval von Wallen), maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

Other sources claim that the frigate was named, as was fashionable at that time, in honor of the Greek goddess of the dawn, Aurora.

Main performance characteristics

Service in peacetime

Participation in the expedition of the Baltic Fleet to Danish waters in 1848-1850

Participation in the Crimean War 1853-1856

First circumnavigation of the world

On August 21, 1853, the frigate "Aurora", under the command of Lieutenant Commander Ivan Nikolaevich Izylmetyev, left Kronstadt for the Far East along the route Copenhagen - Christiansand - Portsmouth - Rio de Janeiro - Cape Horn - Callao - De Castri Bay for reinforcement squadron of Vice Admiral E.V. Putyatin.

Having repaired the damage and not stopping in England, the frigate headed for the eastern coast of America. Having completed the passage across the Atlantic Ocean, on January 15, 1854, the Aurora dropped anchor in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. Here we had to stand in anticipation of favorable winds. On January 31, 1854, the wind changed and the frigate set out to face the storms and storms of the treacherous Cape Horn.

This transition was difficult for the Aurora and its crew; for almost twenty days, headwinds of storms prevented them from entering the Pacific Ocean. Several people became seriously ill with scurvy (8 sailors died, 35 were seriously ill), the frigate was in urgent need of repairs: the deck grooves were leaking again, the rigging was weakened, food and provisions were running out. But fate was merciful to the Aurora, and when it seemed that there was no longer any hope of passing Cape Horn, a fair wind blew, the frigate, having set all sails, passed this ship cemetery on March 13, and on the twentieth day she arrived at the Peruvian port of Callao.

In Callao (Calao) the Aurora was blocked. What was unexpected was the presence in the bay of the English frigates President (under the flag of Rear Admiral David Price), Pike, the French frigates Fort (under the flag of Rear Admiral Febrier de Pointe) and Eurydice, and the French brig Obligado. "Aurora" was trapped. It was necessary to break out of it. The Aurors managed to do this. Lieutenant-Commander Izylmetyev and both admirals exchanged the usual peacetime courtesy calls. Izylmetyev, knowing that war could soon begin and, assuming that any day this news could reach Callao, accelerated the preparation of the Aurora for passage to Russian seas, although ship work seemed to be proceeding according to the usual schedule. The Russian frigate, apparently, was in no hurry to leave.

But this was only an appearance. Russian ingenuity intervened in the matter. On the night of April 14, 1854, in heavy fog, seven ten-oared boats were launched from the Aurora. The sailors of the Aurora descended into the longboats. In complete silence, the anchor was chosen, tugs were applied to the boats, and, in order not to set sails and not to turn the ship’s bow, the frigate was towed to the open sea on cables and with the help of oars. Soon the fog hid the English patrol ship. The Aurora set sail and disappeared into the ocean before the enemy could give chase. A week later, the steamship Virago brought official news, dated March 28, that war had already been declared on Russia.

The last transition was very difficult. As soon as the Aurora left the tropics, she found herself in a zone of severe winds with continuous squalls and the frigate often scooped with her sides. There were many illnesses during the voyage on the Aurora. The first signs of scurvy appeared in Rio de Janeiro, and dysentery appeared at Cape Horn. 13 people died during the transition from Callao to Petropavlovsk. Izylmetyev himself also fell ill and on July 12, 1854, handed over command of the frigate to the senior officer, Lieutenant Commander Mikhail Petrovich Tirol. Upon arrival in Petropavlovsk (July 19, 1854), 196 people were taken ashore from the frigate and sent for treatment to the hot springs in the village of Paratunka. Alas, 19 people could not be saved. There was practically not a single healthy person on the frigate. A special examination showed that “hygienic conditions, as it turned out, were fully observed on the frigate.”

The Aurora made the transition from Kronstadt to Petropavlovsk in 198 days of sailing. The longest passage, from Callao to Petropavlovsk, 9,000 miles long, without calling at ports, was completed in a record time - 66 days.

Participation in the defense of Petropavlovsk

On July 14, 1854, the Chief Commander of the Petropavlovsk Port, Vasily Stepanovich Zavoiko, notified the commander of the Aurora that he had received news from the American consul: Russia had declared war on England and France. A steamer was sent from England to form a squadron to blockade Russian ports in the Pacific Ocean. Zavoiko ordered: “to be in perfect readiness to repel the attack of enemy ships.” During the Aurora's stay in the port, a small garrison, with the help of some of its cannons mounted on quickly built batteries, was able to create an artillery defense system. (The starboard guns were removed and transferred to shore batteries.) Some of the crew were transferred ashore as a garrison reserve to repel an enemy landing. The frigate "Aurora" and the military transport "Dvina" were anchored in the depths of the bay behind the Koshka Spit, with their left sides facing the exit from the harbor.

At a critical moment in the battle, 3 landing teams landed from the frigate Aurora. The detachments of frigate sailors were commanded by Nikolai Fesun, Dmitry Zhilkin and Lieutenant Konstantin Pilkin. The culmination of the battle was a bayonet battle of 350 Russian riflemen and sailors from the Aurora and Dvina with almost three times the superior landing force. In a short but fierce battle, the enemy was thrown from Nikolskaya Hill into the sea.

Early in the morning of August 27, 1854, the enemy squadron left for the open sea. "Aurora" and the ships accompanying it headed to the Bay of De-Kastri, where "Aurora" again gave battle to the enemy. The English detachment headed to Vancouver, the French to San Francisco.

Participation in the evacuation of the Peter and Paul garrison

Property and residents were still being loaded onto ships, and men were cutting a canal in the ice with long rip saws. By April 4, heavily laden ships were brought out into the open. The unarmed transports “Irtysh” and “Baikal” were the first to leave. Two days later, having taken the remnants of the garrison, the frigate Aurora, the corvette Olivutsa, boat No. 1 and the military transport Dvina set off. The commanders were assigned a meeting in De-Kastri Bay.

Second circumnavigation

After leaving Petropavlovsk, the Aurora was at the mouth of the Amur until peace was concluded. Having received orders to return to the Baltic, the frigate under the command of M.P. Tirol left the mouth of the Amur, heading for the Pacific Ocean. On October 9, 1856, from Lazarev metro station he went to Russia along the route Zal. De-Kastri - Korea Strait - Hong Kong - Singapore - Sunda Strait - Cape of Good Hope - St. Helena Island - Cherbourg - Copenhagen - Kronstadt. The transition from the Far East was no less difficult than the journey there; during storms in the Sea of ​​Japan, Indian and Atlantic oceans, the list reached more than 40°.

During the first days of the Aurora's voyage, due to strong storms, the spar became loose and the deck leaked. All this forced the commander to change course and go to Singapore, where the frigate was repaired, stocked with fresh provisions and water, and, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, headed for the St. Helena Islands. During this passage, exemplary meteorological and astronomical observations were carried out on the frigate. The team was engaged in cannon and sailing exercises. There were almost no sick people on the frigate, which had a sufficient supply of fresh herbs, food and water. S. O. Makarov wrote about meteorological observations carried out on the Aurora:

“I will allow myself to give one major example - the frigate Aurora, under the command of Izylmetyev. The meteorological log of this frigate was kept with remarkable detail. From Kronstadt itself to Petropavlovsk, meteorological observations were made hourly, the log was kept just as conscientiously further - in Petropavlovsk, and this did not prevent the crew of the frigate "Aurora" from showing remarkable dedication and courage in the defense of this port. In the meteorological log of this frigate for 1854 on this occasion there is a remarkably eloquent entry that from August 20 to September 1 (old style) no meteorological observations were made on the occasion of military operations. But as soon as hostilities ended, the frigate again began to take their truthful meteorological records.”

The Aurora's round-the-world passage ended in Kronstadt on June 1, 1857. The frigate's Far Eastern voyage lasted three years, nine months and 21 days.

On April 8, 1861, she was excluded from the lists of ships of the Baltic Fleet and sold for scrap, while the name of the frigate, according to tradition, was transferred to the cruiser of the 1st rank.

Commanders

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Literature

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Dotsenko V. D. History of naval art. (edited by Kuroyedov V.I.). - M: Eksmo, 2003. - T. 1: Galleys, sailboats, battleships. - 832 s. - ISBN 5-699-04856-1 ~11/93/28 046.
• Strelov A. // “Voices of Pacific Fleet Veterans.” ISBN 5-7711-0108-7. Digest of articles. - St. Petersburg: 2003. - 158 p.

see also

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Links

An excerpt characterizing the Aurora (frigate)

His chief manager came to see him in Oryol, and with him Pierre made a general account of his changing income. The Moscow fire cost Pierre, according to the chief manager's accounts, about two million.
The chief manager, to console these losses, presented Pierre with a calculation that, despite these losses, his income not only would not decrease, but would increase if he refused to pay the debts remaining after the countess, to which he could not be obliged, and if he does not renew the Moscow houses and the Moscow region, which cost eighty thousand annually and brought nothing.
“Yes, yes, it’s true,” said Pierre, smiling cheerfully. - Yes, yes, I don’t need any of this. I became much richer from ruin.
But in January Savelich arrived from Moscow, told him about the situation in Moscow, about the estimate that the architect made for him to renovate the house and the Moscow region, speaking about it as if it was a settled matter. At the same time, Pierre received a letter from Prince Vasily and other acquaintances from St. Petersburg. The letters talked about his wife's debts. And Pierre decided that the manager’s plan, which he liked so much, was wrong and that he needed to go to St. Petersburg to finish off his wife’s affairs and build in Moscow. Why this was necessary, he did not know; but he knew without a doubt that it was necessary. As a result of this decision, his income decreased by three quarters. But it was necessary; he felt it.
Villarsky was traveling to Moscow, and they agreed to go together.
Throughout his recovery in Oryol, Pierre experienced a feeling of joy, freedom, and life; but when, during his travels, he found himself in the free world and saw hundreds of new faces, this feeling intensified even more. Throughout the trip he felt the joy of a schoolboy on vacation. All the faces: the driver, the caretaker, the men on the road or in the village - everyone had a new meaning for him. The presence and comments of Villarsky, who constantly complained about poverty, backwardness from Europe, and ignorance of Russia, only increased Pierre's joy. Where Villarsky saw deadness, Pierre saw an extraordinary powerful force of vitality, that force that in the snow, in this space, supported the life of this whole, special and united people. He did not contradict Villarsky and, as if agreeing with him (since feigned agreement was the shortest way to bypass reasoning from which nothing could come of it), smiled joyfully as he listened to him.

Just as it is difficult to explain why and where ants rush from a scattered hummock, some away from the hummock, dragging specks, eggs and dead bodies, others back into the hummock - why they collide, catch up with each other, fight - it is just as difficult It would be possible to explain the reasons that forced the Russian people, after the French left, to crowd into the place that was formerly called Moscow. But just as, looking at the ants scattered around a devastated hummock, despite the complete destruction of the hummock, one can see from the tenacity, energy, and countless swarming insects that everything has been destroyed except for something indestructible, immaterial, which makes up the entire strength of the hummock - so too and Moscow, in the month of October, despite the fact that there were no authorities, no churches, no shrines, no wealth, no houses, Moscow was the same as it was in August. Everything was destroyed, except for something insubstantial, but powerful and indestructible.
The motives of people rushing from all sides to Moscow after its cleansing from the enemy were the most varied, personal, and at first mostly wild, animal. There was only one impulse common to everyone - this desire to go there, to that place that was formerly called Moscow, to carry out their activities there.
A week later there were already fifteen thousand inhabitants in Moscow, after two there were twenty-five thousand, etc. Rising and rising, this number by the autumn of 1813 reached a figure exceeding the population of the 12th year.
The first Russian people who entered Moscow were the Cossacks of the Wintzingerode detachment, men from neighboring villages and residents who fled from Moscow and were hiding in its environs. The Russians who entered devastated Moscow, finding it plundered, also began to plunder. They continued what the French were doing. Convoys of men came to Moscow in order to take away to the villages everything that had been thrown along the ruined Moscow houses and streets. The Cossacks took what they could to their headquarters; the owners of the houses took everything that they found in other houses and brought it to themselves under the pretext that it was their property.
But after the first robbers came others, third ones, and the robbery every day, as the number of robbers increased, became more and more difficult and took on more definite forms.
The French found Moscow, although empty, with all the forms of an organically correctly living city, with its various departments of trade, crafts, luxury, government, and religion. These forms were lifeless, but they still existed. There were rows, benches, stores, warehouses, bazaars - most with goods; there were factories, craft establishments; there were palaces, rich houses filled with luxury goods; there were hospitals, prisons, public places, churches, cathedrals. The longer the French stayed, the more these forms of urban life were destroyed, and in the end everything merged into one indivisible, lifeless field of plunder.
The robbery of the French, the more it continued, the more it destroyed the wealth of Moscow and the forces of the robbers. The robbery of the Russians, with which the occupation of the capital by the Russians began, the longer it lasted, the more participants there were in it, the faster it restored the wealth of Moscow and the correct life of the city.
In addition to the robbers, the most diverse people, drawn - some by curiosity, some by duty of service, some by calculation - homeowners, clergy, high and low officials, merchants, artisans, men - from different sides, like blood to the heart - flowed to Moscow.
A week later, the men who arrived with empty carts to take away things were stopped by the authorities and forced to take the dead bodies out of the city. Other men, having heard about the failure of their comrades, came to the city with bread, oats, hay, lowering the price for each other to a price lower than the previous one. Artels of carpenters, hoping for expensive earnings, entered Moscow every day, and new ones were cut from all sides, and burnt houses were repaired. Merchants opened trade in booths. Taverns and inns were set up in burnt houses. The clergy resumed services in many churches that had not burned. Donors brought looted church items. The officials arranged their tables with cloth and cabinets with papers in small rooms. The higher authorities and the police ordered the distribution of the goods left behind by the French. The owners of those houses in which a lot of things brought from other houses were left complained about the injustice of bringing all the things to the Faceted Chamber; others insisted that the French had brought things from different houses to one place, and therefore it was unfair to give the owner of the house those things that were found with him. They scolded the police; bribed her; they wrote ten times the estimates for the burnt government items; demanded assistance. Count Rastopchin wrote his proclamations.

At the end of January, Pierre arrived in Moscow and settled in the surviving outbuilding. He went to see Count Rastopchin and some acquaintances who had returned to Moscow, and was planning to go to St. Petersburg on the third day. Everyone celebrated the victory; everything was seething with life in the ruined and reviving capital. Everyone was happy to see Pierre; everyone wanted to see him, and everyone asked him about what he had seen. Pierre felt especially friendly towards all the people he met; but now he involuntarily kept himself on guard with all people, so as not to tie himself to anything. He answered all questions that were put to him, whether important or most insignificant, with the same vagueness; Did they ask him: where will he live? will it be built? when is he going to St. Petersburg and will he undertake to carry the box? - he answered: yes, maybe, I think, etc.
He heard about the Rostovs, that they were in Kostroma, and the thought of Natasha rarely came to him. If she came, it was only as a pleasant memory of the long past. He felt not only free from everyday conditions, but also from this feeling, which, as it seemed to him, he had deliberately brought upon himself.
On the third day of his arrival in Moscow, he learned from the Drubetskys that Princess Marya was in Moscow. Death, suffering, and the last days of Prince Andrei often occupied Pierre and now came to his mind with new vividness. Having learned at dinner that Princess Marya was in Moscow and was living in her unburned house on Vzdvizhenka, he went to see her that same evening.
On the way to Princess Marya, Pierre kept thinking about Prince Andrei, about his friendship with him, about various meetings with him, and especially about the last one in Borodino.
“Did he really die in the angry mood he was in then? Wasn’t the explanation of life revealed to him before his death?” - thought Pierre. He remembered Karataev, about his death, and involuntarily began to compare these two people, so different and at the same time so similar in love that he had for both, and because both lived and both died.
In the most serious mood, Pierre drove up to the old prince's house. This house survived. It showed signs of destruction, but the character of the house was the same. An old waiter with a stern face who met Pierre, as if wanting to make the guest feel that the prince’s absence did not disturb the order of the house, said that the princess deigned to go to her rooms and was received on Sundays.
- Report; maybe they’ll accept it,” said Pierre.
“I’m listening,” answered the waiter, “please go to the portrait room.”
A few minutes later the waiter and Desalles came out to see Pierre. Desalles, on behalf of the princess, told Pierre that she was very glad to see him and asked, if he would excuse her for her impudence, to go upstairs to her rooms.
In a low room, lit by one candle, the princess and someone else were sitting with her, in a black dress. Pierre remembered that the princess always had companions with her. Who these companions were and what they were like, Pierre did not know and did not remember. “This is one of the companions,” he thought, looking at the lady in a black dress.
The princess quickly stood up to meet him and extended her hand.
“Yes,” she said, peering into his changed face after he kissed her hand, “this is how you and I meet.” “He’s been talking about you a lot lately,” she said, turning her eyes from Pierre to her companion with a shyness that struck Pierre for a moment.
“I was so glad to hear about your salvation.” This was the only good news we received for a long time. - Again, even more restlessly, the princess looked back at her companion and wanted to say something; but Pierre interrupted her.
“You can imagine that I knew nothing about him,” he said. “I thought he was killed.” Everything I learned, I learned from others, through third hands. I only know that he ended up with the Rostovs... What a fate!
Pierre spoke quickly and animatedly. He looked once at the face of his companion, saw a carefully, affectionately curious gaze fixed on him, and, as often happens during a conversation, for some reason he felt that this companion in a black dress was a sweet, kind, nice creature who would not disturb him. intimate conversation with Princess Marya.
But when he said the last words about the Rostovs, the confusion in Princess Marya’s face was expressed even more strongly. She again ran her eyes from Pierre’s face to the face of the lady in a black dress and said:
- Don't you recognize it?
Pierre looked again at the pale, thin face of his companion, with black eyes and a strange mouth. Something dear, long forgotten and more than sweet looked at him from those attentive eyes.
“But no, this can’t be,” he thought. – Is this a stern, thin and pale, aged face? It can't be her. This is just a memory of that.” But at this time Princess Marya said: “Natasha.” And the face, with attentive eyes, with difficulty, with effort, like a rusty door opening, smiled, and from this open door it suddenly smelled and doused Pierre with that long-forgotten happiness, which, especially now, he did not think about. It smelled, engulfed and swallowed him all up. When she smiled, there could no longer be any doubt: it was Natasha, and he loved her.
In the very first minute, Pierre involuntarily told both her, Princess Marya, and, most importantly, himself a secret unknown to him. He blushed joyfully and painfully. He wanted to hide his excitement. But the more he wanted to hide it, the more clearly—more clearly than in the most definite words—he told himself, and her, and Princess Marya that he loved her.
“No, it’s just out of surprise,” thought Pierre. But just as he wanted to continue the conversation he had begun with Princess Marya, he looked at Natasha again, and an even stronger blush covered his face, and an even stronger emotion of joy and fear gripped his soul. He got lost in his words and stopped mid-speech.
Pierre did not notice Natasha, because he did not expect to see her here, but he did not recognize her because the change that had happened in her since he had not seen her was enormous. She lost weight and became pale. But this was not what made her unrecognizable: she could not be recognized in the first minute when he entered, because on this face, in whose eyes before there had always shone a hidden smile of the joy of life, now, when he entered and looked at her for the first time, there was no there was a hint of a smile; there were only eyes, attentive, kind and sadly questioning.
Pierre's embarrassment did not affect Natasha with embarrassment, but only with pleasure, which subtly illuminated her entire face.

“She came to visit me,” said Princess Marya. – The Count and Countess will be there one of these days. The Countess is in a terrible situation. But Natasha herself needed to see the doctor. She was forcibly sent with me.
– Yes, is there a family without its own grief? - Pierre said, turning to Natasha. – You know that it was on the very day we were released. I saw him. What a lovely boy he was.
Natasha looked at him, and in response to his words, her eyes only opened more and lit up.
– What can you say or think for consolation? - said Pierre. - Nothing. Why did such a nice boy, full of life, die?
“Yes, in our time it would be difficult to live without faith...” said Princess Marya.
- Yes Yes. “This is the true truth,” Pierre hastily interrupted.
- From what? – Natasha asked, looking carefully into Pierre’s eyes.
- How why? - said Princess Marya. – One thought about what awaits there...
Natasha, without listening to Princess Marya, again looked questioningly at Pierre.
“And because,” Pierre continued, “only that person who believes that there is a God who controls us can endure such a loss as hers and ... yours,” said Pierre.
Natasha opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but suddenly stopped. Pierre hastened to turn away from her and turned again to Princess Marya with a question about the last days of his friend’s life. Pierre's embarrassment had now almost disappeared; but at the same time he felt that all his former freedom had disappeared. He felt that over his every word and action there was now a judge, a court that was dearer to him than the court of all people in the world. He spoke now and, along with his words, reflected on the impression that his words made on Natasha. He did not deliberately say anything that might please her; but, no matter what he said, he judged himself from her point of view.
Princess Marya reluctantly, as always happens, began to talk about the situation in which she found Prince Andrei. But Pierre's questions, his animatedly restless gaze, his face trembling with excitement little by little forced her to go into details that she was afraid to recreate for herself in her imagination.
“Yes, yes, so, so...” said Pierre, bending forward with his whole body over Princess Marya and eagerly listening to her story. - Yes Yes; so has he calmed down? softened? He always sought one thing with all the strength of his soul; be quite good that he could not be afraid of death. The shortcomings that were in him - if there were any - did not come from him. So has he relented? - said Pierre. “What a blessing that he met you,” he said to Natasha, suddenly turning to her and looking at her with eyes full of tears.
Natasha's face trembled. She frowned and lowered her eyes for a moment. She hesitated for a minute: to speak or not to speak?
“Yes, it was happiness,” she said in a quiet chesty voice, “for me it was probably happiness.” – She paused. “And he... he... he said that he wanted this, the minute I came to him...” Natasha’s voice broke off. She blushed, clasped her hands on her knees and suddenly, apparently making an effort on herself, raised her head and quickly began to say:
– We didn’t know anything when we drove from Moscow. I didn't dare ask about him. And suddenly Sonya told me that he was with us. I didn’t think anything, I couldn’t imagine what position he was in; I just needed to see him, to be with him,” she said, trembling and gasping for breath. And, not allowing herself to be interrupted, she told what she had never told anyone before: everything that she experienced in those three weeks of their journey and life in Yaroslavl.
Pierre listened to her with his mouth open and without taking his eyes off her, full of tears. Listening to her, he did not think about Prince Andrei, or about death, or about what she was telling. He listened to her and only pitied her for the suffering she was now experiencing as she spoke.
The princess, wincing with the desire to hold back tears, sat next to Natasha and listened for the first time to the story of these last days of love between her brother and Natasha.
This painful and joyful story was apparently necessary for Natasha.
She spoke, mixing the most insignificant details with the most intimate secrets, and it seemed that she could never finish. She repeated the same thing several times.
Behind the door, Desalles' voice was heard asking if Nikolushka could come in to say goodbye.
“Yes, that’s all, that’s all...” said Natasha. She quickly stood up just as Nikolushka was entering, and almost ran to the door, hit her head on the door covered with a curtain, and with a groan of either pain or sadness burst out of the room.
Pierre looked at the door through which she went out and did not understand why he was suddenly left alone in the whole world.
Princess Marya called him out of his absent-mindedness, drawing his attention to his nephew, who entered the room.
Nikolushka’s face, similar to his father, in the moment of spiritual softening in which Pierre was now, had such an effect on him that he, having kissed Nikolushka, hastily stood up and, taking out a handkerchief, went to the window. He wanted to say goodbye to Princess Marya, but she held him back.
– No, Natasha and I sometimes don’t sleep until three o’clock; please sit. I'll give you dinner. Go down; we'll be there now.
Before Pierre left, the princess said to him:
“This is the first time she spoke about him like that.”

Pierre was led into the large, illuminated dining room; a few minutes later steps were heard, and the princess and Natasha entered the room. Natasha was calm, although a stern, without a smile, expression was now again established on her face. Princess Marya, Natasha and Pierre equally experienced that feeling of awkwardness that usually follows the end of a serious and intimate conversation. It is impossible to continue the same conversation; talking about trifles is shameful, but remaining silent is unpleasant, because you want to talk, but with this silence you seem to be pretending. They silently approached the table. The waiters pushed back and pulled up chairs. Pierre unfolded the cold napkin and, deciding to break the silence, looked at Natasha and Princess Marya. Both, obviously, at the same time decided to do the same: contentment with life and recognition that, in addition to grief, there are also joys, shone in their eyes.
- Do you drink vodka, Count? - said Princess Marya, and these words suddenly dispersed the shadows of the past.
“Tell me about yourself,” said Princess Marya. “They tell such incredible miracles about you.”
“Yes,” Pierre answered with his now familiar smile of gentle mockery. “They even tell me about such miracles as I have never seen in my dreams.” Marya Abramovna invited me to her place and kept telling me what had happened to me, or was about to happen. Stepan Stepanych also taught me how to tell things. In general, I noticed that it is very peaceful to be an interesting person (I am an interesting person now); they call me and they tell me.
Natasha smiled and wanted to say something.
“We were told,” Princess Marya interrupted her, “that you lost two million in Moscow.” Is this true?
“And I became three times richer,” said Pierre. Pierre, despite the fact that his wife’s debts and the need for buildings changed his affairs, continued to say that he had become three times richer.
“What I have undoubtedly won,” he said, “is freedom...” he began seriously; but decided against continuing, noticing that it was too selfish a subject of conversation.
-Are you building?
- Yes, Savelich orders.
– Tell me, did you not know about the death of the Countess when you stayed in Moscow? - said Princess Marya and immediately blushed, noticing that by making this question after his words that he was free, she ascribed to his words a meaning that they, perhaps, did not have.