parshev.r52.ru was a discussion forum bearing the name of A. P. Parshev and operating in the Nizhny Novgorod domain zone r52.ru. The Nizhny Novgorod directory nn.ru listed it in the section "Projects: Entertainment and Leisure: Communication" under the name "A. P. Parshev Forum," with the description "Forum of the author of the book 'Why Russia Is Not America'"[4]. The home page called the forum simply "A.P.Parshev's Forum," and the same book appeared as a separate menu item[1]. The home-page snapshots preserved in our archive date to 2012 and 2013[1][3]; in the web archive the address appears from March 30, 2002, with the last snapshot dated October 1, 2022[6]. In our census of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet the domain is marked as no longer existing.

What the home page looked like

The preserved text of the home page was arranged simply: a heading, a menu line, an address to the members, and then a continuous list of topics. The menu had seven items — "New Topic," "FAQ," "Archive," "Piggy Bank," "Search," "Why Russia Is Not America," and "Registration"; above it stood a link labeled "Articles"[1].

Above the list of topics hung an address to the members: "Dear forum members. The server administration apologizes for the forum's temporary downtime. We hope this will not happen again"[1]. It stayed in the same place in all three preserved snapshots — from February 2012 to April 2013[1][2][3].

In the 2012 snapshots, right below the heading sat an unrelated advertising line: "Garbage trucks: rear loading and side loading of waste into the garbage truck"[1][2]. In the 2013 snapshot this line was already gone[3].

Topics were shown as a continuous list: a title, the author's nickname, and a timestamp in square brackets in the form "[08:30 20-09-2011]"[1]. The title was often not a short header but a whole paragraph — members packed several sentences, quotes, and conclusions into the topic field[1].

What they argued about

The circle of participants was narrow: the preserved list repeats the nicknames Valerie, Antinato, Vasilisk, Miguel, Gera, mt_christo, Voile, Maria, and visitor[1]. The subjects of discussion were economics, politics, and Russian history: "The Crisis of Capitalism," "The Liberal Model Is Going Bankrupt," "The Fight Against Corruption in Rus from Ancient Times to 1917," "Watch of Remembrance," an analysis of Belarus's economic situation, disputes over vegetable import substitution, and over the "national economic idea"[1].

The tone of the conversation in the preserved part of the list — summer and early autumn of 2011 — is far from a discussion of the book's arguments. A noticeable share of the topics here are not debates over arguments but a running quarrel between several members and an opponent under the nickname Miguel, escalating into outright insults and calls to stop responding to him altogether: "We already decided, there are no Miguels! We don't read their posts and we don't react. Total boycott"[1]. No trace of moderation is visible in these threads: the crude remarks remained on the home page and in the April 2013 snapshot, almost two years after they were written[3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

What tied the forum to the Nizhny Novgorod internet was its address in the r52.ru zone and an entry in the local directory: the nn.ru directory, which called itself a directory of Nizhny Novgorod websites, kept it in the section "Projects: Entertainment and Leisure: Communication"; the snapshot of that directory page was taken in September 2003, and the rating column for the forum read "Rating: none"[4]. There are no distinctly Nizhny Novgorod markers — an address, a phone number with the 831 area code, mentions of the city — in the preserved text of the home page: the discussions were about all-Russian topics, and only the address and the directory entry were local.

The forum was not prominent in the local hierarchy. In the preserved results table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote of 2004, parshev.r52.ru does not appear[5]. It is likewise absent from the Counter.nn.ru rating snapshots preserved in our archive — neither a line nor a rank; for more on which counter snapshots survived at all, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

How it faded and closed

The preserved snapshots do not give an exact closing date, but they show the stoppage. The most recent post in the topic list is dated September 20, 2011, and it remains the topmost one in the snapshot of February 1, 2012, in the snapshot of March 1, 2012, and in the snapshot of April 1, 2013[1][2][3]. The February and March 2012 snapshots match word for word[1][2]. Over more than a year and a half, not a single new topic was added to the home page: the page was still being served, but no new posts appeared on it.

The server administration's apology for the "temporary downtime" remained the last message to the members[3]. Web archive snapshots at this address run from March 30, 2002, with the last one dated October 1, 2022[6]; the domain itself no longer exists. Three texts of the home page have been preserved from the forum for us — a list of other people's replies, cut off in the autumn of 2011.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, section "Projects: Entertainment and Leisure: Communication," September 2003 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — List of parshev.r52.ru snapshots in the web archive, 2002-2022 (archive)