"It's more than a building, it's the heart of the city": the burned-down music theater in Khabarovsk is being demolished.
Demolition is scheduled to be completed by December 20, 2025. The contract value is 120 million rubles. Workers must dismantle not only the above-ground portion of the building but also two underground levels, the area of which exceeds the theater's perimeter.
A fire at the Khabarovsk Musical Theater, the city's oldest theater, occurred in October 2024. Firefighting efforts lasted two days. The blaze destroyed four thousand square meters, causing damages amounting to nearly 1 billion rubles. This doesn't include the cost of costumes, instruments, and equipment.
Investigators determined that the fire was caused by a serious safety violation during the removal of the old roof and installation of a new one. Two construction company employees are indicted.
"We allocated funds, the regional budget, to restore the roof. But instead, we destroyed a vital, iconic structure that's now burning behind us," the Khabarovsk Krai governor declared. Dmitry Demeshin.
The governor stated that the construction of a new building for the music theater would require more than 10 billion rubles. The funds would have to be found through the reallocation of other budget items.
It was impossible to restore the burned-out musical theatre building, so a year later it was decided to demolish it:
"We've been waiting for this moment since the tragedy happened," commented local residents. "We're eager to see a new theater on this site—a modern, beautiful one. For all of us, this is more than just a building; it's the heart of the city."
The Khabarovsk Regional Academic Musical Theatre was founded in 1926. It is the largest professional theatre in the Khabarovsk Territory and the leading musical theatre in the Far East and Eastern Siberia.
