cryology.nnov.ru was the website of the Nizhny Novgorod Center for Medical Cryology "onKolor" and the medical cryology laboratory at the Department of Operative Surgery of the Nizhny Novgorod Medical Academy, a project of V. I. Kochenov, Doctor of Medical Sciences, physician of the highest category[2][3]. The center saw patients in Nizhny Novgorod at 1 Meditsinskaya Street and 6 Nartova Street, with phone numbers (8312) 39-69-07, 106-166 and 78-63-05[2][3]. The earliest saved snapshot of the home page is dated August 8, 2003[1], and the last snapshot showing the center's content is from July 3, 2005[3].

What the site looked like

In August 2003 the home page carried a greeting and the line "Getting ready to open!", although the site was already running on a finished engine with user registration[1]. The left-hand column was called "Navigator," with "Sections" below it: News, Frequently Asked Questions, Reading, Reviews, Best Of, Links, Forum[1]. The same column held a login form, a language switch between English and Russian, and a "Who's online" block reading "1 guest and 0 visitors online"; the bottom of the page carried the signature "admin saVa (c)"[1].

The standing poll "Your opinion of the site" offered a scale from "Excellent (5)" to "Why is it even here? (1)" with an intermediate option "Good enough (with beer) (3)"; its counter is the only surviving measure of the site's traffic: 3 votes and no comments in August 2003[1], 21 votes and 3 comments in September 2004[2], 45 votes and 6 comments by July 2005[3]. The most-read item, an announcement "The Center for Medical Cryology offers" from November 20, 2003, drew 897 views[2].

What the center offered

The 2004 home page presented "onKolor" and the medical academy's cryology laboratory "under the leadership of the co-chairman of the All-Russian Cryosurgical Society, Dr. Med. Sci. V. I. Kochenov" and listed services: cryodestruction of skin tumors, throat and nose cryotherapy for children prone to frequent illness, regenerative cryotherapy of the face and neck, and general aerocryotherapy in a cryosauna — "the whole body in the cabin at minus 160°C, unclothed, for 2-3 minutes"[2]. According to the home page, all of this was done "by deep cold alone — no injection, no incision, no drugs, no pain"[2]. Here and below, the site's own claims are relayed, not verified information[2].

Patients were seen at 6 Nartova Street, second floor, room 8, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., while the cryosauna operated at 1 Meditsinskaya Street from 5 to 7 p.m.; for correspondence the addresses kriol@rol.ru and kriol.nnov@list.ru were given[2]. The page cited license G 097532, reg. No. M385 of March 18, 2004, issued by the Ministry of Health of Nizhny Novgorod Region[2][3].

The site also sold books and patents. Medical libraries and clinics were offered V. I. Kochenov's manual "Cryological Preventive Oncology" (Nizhny Novgorod, 2003, 92 pages, 100 rubles) and the "Medical Cryology" collections of scholarly papers, issues 3-5 for 2003-2004, sent by cash on delivery[3]. The same page listed twelve "commercializable" patents with a referral to the medical academy's patent and licensing department at phone (8312) 39-06-06, and a separate notice invited a certified patent specialist to apply, with pay of "$100 for each new patent"[3]. The site also offered liquid nitrogen delivery through a separate phone number[2].

Conferences and the scientific side

The site collected applications for the international conferences "New Developments in Practical Medical Cryology," held in Moscow at the VVTs exhibition center as part of the "Cryogen-Expo" show: the first on November 18, 2004, the second on November 17, 2005[2][3]. The organizers listed were the All-Russian Cryosurgical Society, the Nizhny Novgorod Medical Academy's medical cryology laboratory, the "onKolor" center, and the exhibition company "Mir-Expo"; the registration fee was 110 conventional units, and abstracts were accepted on floppy disk in Word 6 format[2][3]. According to the site's own report, the first conference drew more than 50 attendees, and at the founding meeting of the Interregional Association of Medical Cryology, Kochenov was elected chairman of the board[3].

The site also preserved the history of its emblem: the Italian cryosurgeon Franco Lugnani added icicles to the wings of the eagle on the medical symbol, and this frozen eagle went on to appear on the "Medical Cryology" collections published in Nizhny Novgorod[2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet and the fate of the address

In the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the early 2000s, cryology.nnov.ru was a niche site attached to an academic laboratory: it does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating counter, and no votes for it are recorded in our data (see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating); the site is likewise absent from the results table of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day[5]. The site entered our catalogue via the nn.ru directory, where it was listed with the description "Everything about treatment by cold."

The last saved snapshot of the address is dated February 4, 2011, and by then cryology.nnov.ru no longer opened onto the cryology center but onto the site of "Shesterenka," a Nizhny Novgorod chain of auto parts stores, with 2010 news items and the phone numbers +7 (8312) 58-02-00 and 59-35-35[4]. Whether this reflects the center's relocation, a server reconfiguration, or reuse of the subdomain cannot be established from the archive; no later snapshots exist.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2011 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day voting results, 2004 (archive)