The stands of the Kirov stadium were located on the slopes of a circular artificial mound in the western part of Krestovsky Island, on the coast of the Gulf of Finland.

The stadium was opened on 30 July 1950 with the game between two main Leningrad teams, Zenit and Dynamo, drew 1-1.

For the match between Zenit and CSKA on 14 July 1951, additional temporary stands were installed, increasing the capacity of the stadium to 110,000.

Kirov stadium was reconstructed to hold preliminary matches of the football tournament at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Part of the seats were already uninstalled because of planned deconstruction, so the match was visited by only 45,000 spectators despite the sold-out stadium.