The Potemkin and Aurora are two ships that bookended the Russian Revolution.

The Potemkin, a battleship of the Black Sea Fleet, led the first naval mutiny at Odessa in 1905.

The Aurora, after sailing round the globe in the service of the Tsar and taking part in the defeat at Tsushima by the Japanese in 1905, was adopted by the Bolsheviks to fire the fatal shot that signalled the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917. She lived on, surviving two world wars and was hailed as a 'Hero of the Revolution'.