The Orthodox church in Chelyabinsk, dedicated to Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky, was built according to the design of Alexander Pomorantsev in 1916.

On April 13, 1922, the church building was handed over to a group of believers for free and indefinite use in accordance with the law. That same year, all valuables were removed from the church, which the Bolsheviks planned to sell to combat hunger.

On March 4, 1930, the church was closed, and the presidium of the regional committee decided to use the premises for state needs.

From the late 1920s and early 1930s, the destruction of church buildings began in Chelyabinsk, with domes being removed from churches. The church on the Red Field also suffered: the domes with crosses and the bell tower's tent were removed, wall paintings were painted over, and ceilings and partitions were installed in the central part of the church.

Initially, the building was used as a newspaper workshop for the "Chelyabinsk Worker" printing house, then it served as a military property warehouse and a planetarium. From 1940 and during the Great Patriotic War, it housed collections of the Chelyabinsk Regional Art Gallery, and from 1944, the storage of the State Archive of Chelyabinsk Region, where some archive employees lived in certain rooms. From 1956 to 1981, a planetarium operated there, followed by a chess school and clubs of the Palace of Pioneers. In the early 1980s, it was decided to transfer the building to the Chelyabinsk Philharmonic.

On July 8, 2010, the first service in 80 years was held in the church building. On November 27, 2013, it was announced that the church building on the Red Field was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.