Deadly garage party collapse in Akademgorodok killed student

Exactly six years ago in Novosibirsk«s Akademgorodok, an emergency occurred: a young woman died at a garage party. The building»s roof collapsed due to uncleared snow, and experts later determined that the structure«s frame had given way. Five people were among the injured. NGS has gathered everything known about the emergency and also contacted those involved in the tragedy.

What the investigation found

The garage party, which turned into a tragedy, took place on the night of February 2 on Molodezhi Boulevard. Guests were invited to another Walter Party via social networks; even six years after the tragedy, the organizers« profile still has over 800 followers. However, no posts about new discos have been published there since.

The party venue was a construction materials warehouse on the books of FSUE «Housing and Communal Services of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center» (FGUZhKKh NNTs). According to the investigation, the garage party organizers were Danil Odintsov and Anton Shmatov, from whom the deputy director of the unitary enterprise, Vladimir Ponurovsky, received 15,000 rubles (approx. $150 at current rates) for renting the warehouse.

According to Kontur.Focus, FSUE «Housing and Communal Services of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center» ceased operations in mid-2020 through reorganization. Its successor was FBGU «Housing and Communal Management of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center,» now FGBU «Academy of Comfort.» The founder of the current enterprise is the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

In the midst of the party, due to snow that was not cleared in time, the roof of the warehouse and a nearby annex collapsed; it was later determined that the transverse beams of the wooden frame had failed. As a result, one person died and five others were injured.

Shmatov and Odintsov were charged under Article 238 of the Russian Criminal Code (providing services that do not meet safety requirements for life or health of consumers), and Ponurovsky under Articles 286 (exceeding official authority) and 293 (negligence). In the fall of 2022, all the defendants were sentenced.

The party organizers were sentenced to 1.5 years of community service, and Vladimir Ponurovsky received a suspended sentence. At the time, only he partially admitted guilt.

«Parties weren»t her thing«

A list of the injured appeared almost immediately after the emergency in Akademgorodok. The identity of the deceased, however, remained unknown for some time.

The victim turned out to be 22-year-old medical student Tuyana Prushenova, who had come to Novosibirsk from Ulan-Ude with her sister. The young women were studying at the Novosibirsk State Medical University (NSMU), and she had only six months left until graduation.

NGS wrote that on the night of February 2, the student went to a trendy party for the first time with her sister. When the roof collapsed, Tuyana was buried under the rubble and died in the hospital without regaining consciousness.

Her classmates described the girl as a quiet, homebody type and said that «parties weren»t her thing.« Tuyana»s relatives, both in 2021 and six years after the tragedy, do not want to speak with journalists—NGS«s appeals to the student»s sister and father went unanswered.

The silence is understandable: the personal social media profile of the deceased«s father is filled with photos of the girl. Among them is a picture of the grave—they had wanted to transport Tuyana»s body back to her homeland.

NGS was unable to speak with people who were injured in the collapse: one of the presumably injured left the correspondent«s message unread, while another, upon learning the reason for the contact, asked not to call her back. And although the girl refused to communicate with the press, she shares her thoughts about the past with followers on her Telegram channel.

In late January, the girl posted a message mentioning the anniversary of her friend«s death. She did not name the circumstances of the tragedy or the deceased»s name but noted: «February 2 will mark six years since she passed away.»

In the letter, the author reflects on people who judge the situation from the outside and don«t feel the weight of decisions. She said she used to torment herself with the phrase »What if,« and added that someone else»s tragedy is no reason to feel smarter.

«People who didn»t know me well considered it very important to leave their comment,« she wrote. »Thankfully, among those I valued at the time, there were few who condemned me, but still. It was very painful. I regretted that I survived.«

Details of the February tragedy

According to the Sovetsky District Court, the verdict in the Akademgorodok emergency case was appealed, and the materials were reviewed by the regional court in 2023. The appellate ruling does not specify some details of the events, including the date and address where the tragedy occurred. But it cites witness statements.

«Inside the building (which looked abandoned), people smoked cigarettes, throwing butts on the floor; there were no fire extinguishers or exit plan signs in the building; the windows were boarded up; there was a hookah area, a dance floor was set up, a bar counter, pizza was being made, and alcohol was consumed,» the eyewitnesses« words are quoted.

The room used as a cloakroom had no light, and the roof collapsed around 3:25–3:45 AM, the entrance was completely blocked. According to the testimony of an ambulance anesthesiologist-reanimatologist, people were delivered to medical vehicles as they were found.

The man remembered a young girl with no signs of life, on whom resuscitation was performed. After death was pronounced, the victim«s body was taken to the forensic medical examination bureau.

According to the expert conclusion cited by the court, death resulted from general hypothermia—which caused the development of a life-threatening condition. The expert also mentioned the injuries the girl sustained.

«The expert»s testimony in court indicates that medical manipulations were performed on the victim before death. Closed fractures and soft tissue bruises were sustained by the victim within an hour before her death (no more than one hour),« the documents state.

The regional court ruled to count the time Shmatov spent in custody and under house arrest toward his sentence. The rest of the decision was left unchanged.

«The disaster brought everyone together»

A year after the tragedy, eyewitnesses shared their memories of the emergency with NGS. When the music in the building stopped, a cry of «Guys, the roof fell» rang out in the crowd, and people began to exit to the street without panic. Some remained inside and helped clear the debris.

«When I went out, I saw that the room that was the cloakroom had become like a street. A mountain of snow was visible from the doorway. I ran up and asked if help was needed. As it turned out, there were people there. I climbed onto the snow mound and shouted, »Is anyone alive under the rubble?« I asked, »Can you breathe? Wait, we«ll start digging you out now!»—said one of the partygoers, Sergey.

Another eyewitness also reported on social media that people helped others get out from under the rubble. In the «AST-54» group on the VKontakte social network, he announced that he was one of the first there «in the line of duty.»

«I saw guys digging snow, pulling apart boards with bare hands in the freezing cold, not stopping for a second. I saw girls taking off their jackets to warm the guys, warming their frozen, stiff hands. I saw how the disaster brought everyone together at once,» he wrote.

On the anniversary of the tragedy, NGS attempted to contact the participants in the criminal case, but they did not want to make contact. Anton Shmatov refused to participate in the article«s preparation, Danila Odintsov»s phone was turned off—the correspondent sent him a message on social media. It was not possible to speak with Vladimir Ponurovsky.

In 2021, NGS reported that Anton Shmatov and Danil Odintsov dreamed of organizing global events, such as bringing famous musicians to Akademgorodok. Whether they work in the entertainment industry now is unknown: Shmatov is associated with a company that manufactures heat exchange devices. No data on the current activities of the second participant could be found.

In January 2026, the second floor of a shopping center collapsed in Novosibirsk. Several people were trapped under the rubble, and one ultimately died. NGS has gathered everything known about that emergency in a separate report.