Amateur performances were held regularly in Khabarovsk beginning in 1893, and the Society for Amateurs of the Stage and Music Arts was founded in 1896. At the same time, various professional traveling theatrical companies continued to perform in the city. In 1946 a permanent theater was built, which over the years has been headed by the directors P. B. Kharlip, K. A. Vedernikov, S. A. Benkendorf, la. S. Tsitsinovskii, and others.
Among the works staged by the theater are The Young Guard (1947), based on Fadeev’s novel, Gorky’s Vassa Zheleznova (1951) and Egor Bulychov and the Others (1962), A. K. Tolstoy’s Tsar Fedor loannovich (1965), O’Casey’s The Bishop’s Bonfire (1965), Rozov’s The Traditional Reunion (1967), Shukshin’s Energetic People (1975), and Mayakovsky’s The Bathhouse (1976). Other works include Pogodin’s The Kremlin Chimes (1959), Third Pathétique (1963), and Man With a Gun (1965). The theater has also staged a number of works with the collaboration of local authors, including V. A. Shavrin’s The Plakhov Family (1964), Light Pier (1973), and Jester (1975).
Members of the company include (1977) Honored Artists of the RSFSR M. P. Barashkova, E. N. Paevskaia, V. A. Shavrin, S. L. Tatarinov, and M. P. Vorob’ev. Since 1976 the principal director has been A. T. Naidenov.