ST.PETERSBURG, September 08. /ITAR-TASS/. More than $3.3 million have been allocated for the repairs of the Aurora cruiser -a symbol of the 1917 socialist revolution in Russia. Now, the ship that has been harboring in St.Petersburg, is a branch of the Central Naval Museum.

The Aurora is not planned to sail to the docks unaided; an operation to bring the ship to a shipyard for repairs will be launched on September 21, when the Aurora with the support of four tow ships will move off its customary mooring berth and head for the docks.

The repairs are planned to continue for around 1.5 years. The Aurora is going to have its hull cleaned and painted anew; the interior of the ship will be restored to resemble its historical image as much as possible. Parts of the ship's hull and mechanisms of historical value that survived to the present day will be left intact, press service Chief of Russia's Western Military District Oleg Kochetkov told ITAR-TASS.

But, new systems ensuring safe mooring, fire prevention and monitoring will be established on board, Kochetkov said.

The Aurora was first used as a war ship in the Battle of Tsushima during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war. During WWI it took part in military operations in the Baltic area.

But the ship went down in world history after it fired a historic cannon shot in St. Petersburg in 1917 which heralded the beginning of the 1917 October armed uprising followed by a storm of the emperor's Winter Palace in St.Petersburg.

After the socialist revolution the Aurora was used as a training ship. During WWII the Aurora crews fought against Nazis who besieged Leningrad.

In 1948 the ship was moored at the Petrograd embankment on the Neva. It had been used since as a training base of the Nakhimov naval school until 1956 when the ship was turned into a museum.