V. I. Lenin Stadium

The V. I. Lenin Stadium in Khabarovsk is a place that has watched its city change. It opened in 1957, built by military units under Marshal Rodion Malinovsky during a time that shaped Soviet sport. The architecture is Stalinist neoclassicism. It stands in the Kirovsky District, at 1 Sovetskaya Street, and has kept its name through every change.

The ground is defined by the river. The Amur is close, and it did not stay away. In 2013 the floodwaters came in and the natural grass was destroyed. The surface had to change. Artificial turf replaced the original playing field. Before that, the surface had been natural, and before that again, there was bandy. The stadium hosted the 1981 World Bandy Championship. It has not always been a football venue.

The capacity tells part of the story. The stadium opened with around 20,000 seats, but a reconstruction in 2003 replaced wooden benches with individual plastic chairs. The number fell to 15,200. The undersoil heating system was installed at the same time, in 2003, and has had maintenance issues. The official attendance record is 25,000, set on February 12, 1981, during a Bandy World Championship match between the USSR and Sweden. The stadium also remembers November 20, 1982, when a crowd crush after a bandy match took 19 lives. That day changed safety rules across Russian sport.

FC SKA-Khabarovsk plays here now. The club earned promotion to the Russian Premier League in 2017 and brought football back to the ground. Ice hockey once lived here too, but HC Amur moved to the Platinum Arena. The stadium still stands between the Kirovsky District and the river, holding onto the past while the club plays in the present.