The Battleship Aurora - In 1917, the battleship Aurora came up the Neva River and fired a blank shot near the Winter Palace. This was the signal of the beginning of the revolution, "the 10 days that shook the world". Lenin’s Bolsheviks stormed the palace and overthrew the Romanof  Dynasty.  Alexey describes this as the most powerful cannon ever because it "destroyed a country for 80 years".