birman.r52.ru was the personal website of Dmitry Petrovich Birman, a Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur and politician, existing in the Nizhny Novgorod domain zone r52.ru from roughly 2000 to 2005. The site consisted of a single page — a biography — and presented its subject as a deputy of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma, chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the "Development of Entrepreneurship" movement, and head of the "Karina" production and trade holding[1]. The copyright mark on the page was dated "2000"[1], and in the nn.ru site catalogue the resource was described in the same words as its own home page. The keywords in the page's service markup — "Birman Dmitry Petrovich, elections, candidate, city duma, power" [1] — betray the resource's pre-election purpose.

One page instead of a site

All the content fit on a single page with a single menu item — "Biography"[1]. The surviving snapshots show no news section, no reception page, no platform, no forum: the site was not a venue for communicating with voters but a business card put on the web.

The biography was written in the third person. According to the home page, its subject was born on 18 April 1961 in Gorky, finished secondary school No. 24 of the Sovetsky district, entered the Gorky Civil Engineering Institute in 1978, worked as a foreman, site foreman, section chief, and chief engineer at a DOSAAF plant, and in 1989 "created one of the city's and region's first production facilities for sports exercise equipment for children with musculoskeletal disorders"[1]. It went on to list titles: laureate of the all-Russian "Manager of the Year" contest, inclusion among the hundred best heads of trading organizations by decision of the commission awarding the G. Solodovnikov prize, a "Best Trade Manager" diploma, and a gold badge[1].

Separate paragraphs were devoted to charity work: support for the "Nordis" rehabilitation school for hearing-impaired children, help to kindergartens, schools, military units, law enforcement agencies, theaters of Nizhny Novgorod, and religious institutions, and a "widely known initiative to install benches in the city's courtyards"[1]. The page closed with personal lines: "Writes poetry. In 2000 his book 'Two Roles' was published. Married, raising a daughter. Life motto — decency in everything"[2].

The page gave almost no contact details: neither a postal address nor a phone number appeared on it — only an invitation to write to birman@r52.ru[1]. At the bottom was a technical credit line from the maker: "Coding by Info-online"[2]. No visitor counters remain in the texts of the preserved snapshots.

What changed over five years

The site was never restructured, but its single text was edited. In the 2001 snapshot the subject is called "general director" of the "Karina" holding and chairman of the branch of the "all-Russian socio-political movement 'Development of Entrepreneurship'"[1]; by December 2002 the movement had become in the text an "all-Russian political party," and the position had become "President" of the holding[2]. At the same time a minor stylistic edit took place: "Especially noted is the personal contribution" was changed to "Especially noted," and "Dmitry Petrovich is known for his extensive charitable activity" became "Known for his extensive charitable activity"[2]. The December 2003 snapshot repeats the 2002 version word for word[3]. By January 2005 only the browser window title had changed: the all-caps "BIRMAN DMITRY PETROVICH | Biography" became "Birman Dmitry Petrovich | Biography"[4]. Nothing else was added to the site over five years.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site belonged to the r52.ru zone — one of the Nizhny Novgorod domain zones — and made it into the nn.ru thematic catalogue, which is how its description is known. At the same time, it was not a notable participant in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet: it does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru ranking, and its traffic is unknown to us (see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating). In the results table of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, the domain birman.r52.ru does not appear[5].

How it closed

The last snapshot of the home page in the web archive is dated 22 January 2005[4]; there are no later copies there. Today the domain birman.r52.ru no longer exists, and our data contain no record of the content having moved to another address. All that remains of the site is the nearly unchanged biography page in the archival copies from 2001-2005.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)