mirsaun.r52.ru was the website of a Nizhny Novgorod trading company, "Mir Saun" ("World of Saunas"), which sold and built saunas, Turkish baths and pools, and also traded in fireplaces and bathhouse equipment. The domain operated in the Nizhny Novgorod zone r52.ru, and in all surviving snapshots of the home page the contact details are Nizhny Novgorod ones: in 2004 the address given was "603105, Nizhny Novgorod, Vaneeva St., 20" with phone numbers (8312) 35-77-24, 38-38-01[1], and in 2010, addresses on Arzamasskaya Street and Kazanskoye Shosse with numbers in the 831 code[3]. In the web archive the site is recorded from 21 July 2001 to 1 December 2010; substantive snapshots of the home page survive for 2004, 2006 and 2010. The site was listed in the directory of the Nizhny Novgorod portal nn.ru with a card describing it as "The company 'Mir Saun' is the official representative of the Finnish company 'HARVIA'".

The mid-2000s site: saunas, stoves, accessories

In the 2004 snapshot the home page is a showcase with a side menu of sections: "About the Company", "News", "Turkish Baths", "Sauna Equipment", "Fireplaces", "SPA, Pools", "Accessories"[1]. As the home page stated, the company "has for five years been the official representative of the Finnish companies 'HARVIA', 'KASTOR' and 'Helo' in Russia and considers meeting the client's requirement the main principle of its work" (spelling of the source preserved)[1].

The range was listed in detail: custom-built saunas of lime and Canadian cedar, Turkish baths, pools and SPA pools; equipment included electric heaters, steam generators, wood-burning stoves, control units, lighting; accessories included wash basins, thermometers, hygrometers, textiles, aromas[1]. A separate line of business was fireplaces made in France and Germany and fireplace inserts from Deville, Totem, Chazelles and Max Blank[1]. Services were described in one line: "Turnkey construction of saunas, pools and fireplaces. Equipment installation. Expert consultation on any question"[1].

Next to the news block in the 2004 snapshot is the date 5 February 2004, and the headlines themselves read "Prices for sauna construction reduced", "The largest fireboxes in the world" and "Max Blank in Russia for the first time"[1]. Besides the address on Vaneeva Street, the contacts listed a second one — Gagarina Avenue, 50, telephone 64-93-86; the contact email was mirsaun@r52.ru[1].

Change of addresses and a turn toward fireplaces

By 2006 the text of the home page had been rewritten and the emphasis had shifted: "We are engaged in selling saunas and fireplaces, as well as facing fireboxes from the most famous European manufacturers," the home page stated[2]. The longest paragraph was devoted to fireplaces: wall-mounted, corner, room-centered, front-facing and panoramic fireplaces were offered, "in the style of classical medievalism" and for a modern interior[2]. Of the bathhouse stoves it was said that Finnish heaters had been "refined and adapted to the特ities of Russian conditions by our specialists"[2]. The claimed length of time on the market by this point was ten years[2].

The menu had also changed: instead of the "SPA, Pools" section there now appeared "Chimneys" and "Contacts", and the equipment section was now called "Saunas and Equipment"[2]. The addresses had also changed: wholesale purchases were handled at "Nizhny Novgorod, Larina St. 7/3", telephone (8312) 31-90-39, and shops were located at "603152, Nizhny Novgorod, Larina St., 7/3, office 221A" (telephones 31-90-39, 69-36-72) and "Arzamasskaya St., 5" (telephone 37-00-69)[2].

A place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site ran on a third-level domain in the Nizhny Novgorod zone r52.ru and was one of the commercial sites of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the 2000s; it entered the directory catalog of the nn.ru portal as a short card with a name and one line of description. In the published results table of the voting for the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day in 2004 the site is not listed, although other sites of the same zone are present in it — for example, riann.r52.ru and dom.r52.ru[4]. In the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter, which underlie the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating, no data on its traffic was recorded.

Leaving the domain

In the December 2010 snapshot the company calls itself a trading house and gives two addresses — "Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamasskaya St., 5" and "Nizhny Novgorod, Kazanskoye Shosse, 10/6", telephones 8(831) 463-99-90, 463-77-70, 278-26-28, 278-26-29 and tel./fax 8(831) 437-00-69[3]. By this time the home page itself had been reduced to a contact block: addresses, telephones, mention of a discount and a reference to another domain — "Detailed information at www.mirsaun-nn.ru", with both addresses, mirsaun.r52.ru and mirsaun-nn.ru, standing side by side in the "Site" field[3]. There the company also stated about itself: "For a decade now the company TD 'Mir Saun' has been a leader in the construction of various types of steam rooms (saunas, Turkish and Russian baths)," and described its area of work as Nizhny Novgorod, the region and territories beyond it[3].

This snapshot turned out to be the last: it is dated 1 December 2010[3], no later versions of the site on the domain exist in the web archive, and the domain mirsaun.r52.ru itself is no longer active. The further fate of the enterprise cannot be traced from our materials.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2006 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2010 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Voting results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, 2004 (archive)