chemodan.narod.ru is a Nizhny Novgorod entertainment website known over the years under two names: "Chemodan Razvlecheniy" ("Suitcase of Entertainment") in the early 2000s, and "ChMD-Club," also styled CHC (Chemodan Club), in its later version. The site was listed in the nn.ru directory, which presented itself as a "directory of Nizhny Novgorod websites," under the category "Projects : Entertainment and Leisure : Humor and Fun"; on the category page, archived on 17 May 2003, it is credited with a rating of 125 on the Counter.nn.ru counter (counter number 2227)[5]. The directory description read: "Leisure: gifts, prize contests, jokes, games, photos, navigator, articles, quizzes"[5]. The earliest archived snapshot of the home page is dated 9 March 2001[1], the latest — 15 June 2025[4].

"Chemodan Razvlecheniy": the 2001 version

The early version of the site was called "CHEMODAN RAZVLECHENIY" ("SUITCASE OF ENTERTAINMENT") and consisted of six sections: "FOR SITE OWNERS," "RAZVLEKUSHKA" ("Little Fun Thing"), "NET-NAVIGATOR," "YuKCh CLUB," "X-DOSSIER," and "ZABOR-S" ("The Fence"). The contact address given was the email chemodan_2000@mail.ru; the home page listed neither a postal address nor a phone number[1].

The home page was written in the first person and updated by hand. In the snapshot from 9 March 2001, the owner congratulated women readers on the 8th of March holiday, apologized for the lack of updates — explaining that, in his words, "the car broke down" — and promised to return to a regular schedule after the 15th[1]. The same page listed the open contests: a prize for the best blooper, for the best photo, for the best comic strip, and a lottery among members of the "YuKCh" club. Winners, the home page said, were added to the site's archive and to the "YuKCh" club and received sets of compact discs; in the February lottery, it said, the prize was to be delivered in person, "hand to hand." A separate paragraph carried an announcement: in the entire history of the site, the one winner had never received the prize — the parcel had been returned, and the person could not be reached. "KATARINA! Get in touch!" the home page appealed to her[1].

ChMD-Club: menu and services

The later version of the site was arranged quite differently: at the top was the heading "CHC (Chemodan Club)," and below it a column of about twenty sections: "HOME," "CONTESTS," "JOKES," "ONLINE GAMES," "FUNNY PICS," "PHOTOS," "ANIME," "CARTOONS," "FREEBIES," "QUIZZES," "FRIENDS," "OUR CITY," "CONTACT US," "THE FENCE," "CHAT," "DREAM BOOK," "GREETING CARDS," "REGISTRY OFFICE," "MP3," and "LAFA.RU"[2]. Besides the "Fence" forum, the chat, and the dream book, the site had daily-updated blocks: a horoscope, "Link of the Day," "Joke of the Day," and "Picture of the Day"[2].

A separate block invited visitors to subscribe to the newsletter "The Best Jokes, Unusual Facts, and Amazing News," which was distributed through the CONTENT.MAIL.RU mailing service; subscribers were promised not only enjoyment but a prize as well, and were advised to subscribe in HTML format because of an illustrated attachment[2]. At the bottom of the page was a signature with a typo in the English phrase and a design version number: "CHC (Chemodan-Club). All rigth reserved forever! V3.0-092002"[2]. This marker indicates that the third version of the design was assembled in September 2002 and was never changed afterward.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

By counter rating, ChMD-Club was a notable but not the top presence in its category. In the snapshot of the "Humor and Fun" category from 17 May 2003, its 125 points placed it fourth — after the dating site "PRIVAT" (1507), the caricature project "Atypical Russian Caricatures" (532), and "Babtsedavka" (357); next, with 117 points, came Homesite, while nine of the roughly twenty-five sites in the category had no counter installed at all[5]. On how the counter works and what its numbers mean, see Counter.nn.ru and the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

In the surviving results table of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, which lists participants together with their site addresses, ChMD-Club does not appear[6]. The site owed its place in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet specifically to the nn.ru directory and counter, as well as to the "OUR CITY" section in its own menu[2].

Fate of the address

Formally, the site never closed: the page at chemodan.narod.ru was still being served as late as 2025. But it had stopped being updated long before that. The snapshots from 20 July 2019[2], 3 June 2022[3], and 15 June 2025[4] match word for word: the same menu, the same "V3.0-092002" signature, the same "joke of the day" about the "Dom-2" TV show, and the same newsletter invitation. The most recent web-archive snapshot of the home page is dated 15 June 2025[4]. When checked in August 2026, the site at this address was still responding.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2019 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2022 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2025 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, «Humor and Fun» category, 2003 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)