apteki.nnov.ru — the website of the Nizhny Novgorod weekly medical review "V Aptekakh Goroda i Oblasti" ("In the Pharmacies of the City and the Region")[1][3]. The publication styled itself a Nizhny Novgorod weekly, and its printed issue was handed out free of charge at the pharmacy administration, at hospitals and at the medical academy of Nizhny Novgorod[3]. The earliest snapshot of the site in the web archive is dated 1 November 2000[1], while the content of the home page came to a halt at issue No. 1 of 17 January 2005[3].

A review for doctors and pharmacists

The first surviving version of the site is the table of contents of a current issue, under the masthead "IN THE PHARMACIES — A Weekly Medical Review" and the heading "In this issue"[1]. The materials were arranged in six sections: "Official", "Practice", "NNSMA News" (news of the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy), "Nizhny Novgorod Regional Pharmacy Administration", "The Lancet in Nizhny Novgorod" and "Retail Prices"[1].

The make-up of the sections shows whom the publication worked for. "Practice" was taken up by professional analyses: "Resistance of microorganisms and antibacterial therapy", "Current views on the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease", "Erythropoietin in the treatment of renal failure", "Treatment and prevention of cerebrovascular diseases", "Telemedicine. From Moscow to the regions of Russia", "'Health — 21st Century': concept — integration"[1]. The pharmacy administration section carried official bulletins: "On clinical trials of medicinal products", "To the heads of pharmacy enterprises", "NOTsKKSLS reports", "Information on rejected medicines"[1]. In "Official", alongside "New documents in the field of healthcare", stood the notice "On social departments of pharmacies for providing medicines to low-income citizens"[1] — a sign of the times in which the paper was published.

The practical part was tied closely to the city: the "Retail Prices" section led to "Prices for medicines at some pharmacies of Nizhny Novgorod as of 14 October 2000"[1]. "NNSMA News" in that issue consisted of a single item — "The participation of Russian doctors in international scientific cooperation"[1], while the section "The Lancet in Nizhny Novgorod" pointed to "Articles from the 'Influenza' series (vol. 354, December 1999)"[1]. The professional tone was diluted by optional pieces standing in the same "Practice" section: the essay "Ambroise Paré (1510-1590) — a surgeon of the Renaissance", the note "This is what N. A. Dobrolyubov said" and a piece under the heading "Should there be some mystery in a woman?"[1].

Services for the Nizhny Novgorod pharmaceutical market

By 2005 the site had ceased to be merely the contents page of a newspaper and had acquired tools. The home page ran a search for medicines held by the wholesale firms of Nizhny Novgorod: a drop-down list offered a choice of ten suppliers — "Volga-Farm" (Volga Pharm), "Galen", "GalLa Farm", "LEM", "Marun", "Medtekhkompleks" (Medical Engineering Complex), "NIMEK", "Skif" LLC, "Farma Treyd" (Pharma Trade), "Farmimeks"[3]. Next to them hung "Information on the passing of quality control", a list of rejected medicinal products and the announcement "On the urgent withdrawal of a medicine"[3].

The publication also distributed software of its own: the "Distribution package of the 'Klient-Apteka' (Client-Pharmacy) program of 10 February 2004" could be downloaded from the page, and beside it lay the "Rates for placing price lists in the 'Klient-Apteka' program" and the "Rates for placing advertising"[3]. There was a working "Labour exchange. Vacancies on the Nizhny Novgorod PharmMarket", the "Nizhny Novgorod Regional Formulary List" was published, and the address and telephone directory "Zdravstvuy" (Hello) and the journal "MEDitsinsky OBOZrevatel" (The Medical Observer) were listed[3]. There was also a subscription to a mailing list — the buttons "Subscribe" and "Unsubscribe"[3]. A separate form invited the reader to suggest "a topic for a topical report or interview" or "a topic of a scientific and medical nature to be covered by the region's medical specialists"[3].

The most tangible part of the page was the list of places where the newspaper was handed out free of charge. As the home page reported, "you can obtain your personal copy of the newspaper free of charge" at the Pharmacy Administration at 2 Svobody Square (2nd floor, the secretary), in the library of the Semashko Hospital at 190 Rodionova Street, in the registry of the medical academy at 10/1 Minina Square, in the admissions department of Hospital No. 33 at 54 Lenina Avenue and from the secretary of the chief physician of Hospital No. 39 at 144 Moskovskoye Highway[3]. At the foot of the page stood the copyright line "© SmArt, 2000"[3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The publication did not conceal its presence in the local rating services: at the foot of the 2000 issue stood three counter buttons — "NN counter top100" with a link to Counter.nn.ru, "made in nnov" and Rambler Top100[1]. In the catalogue of Nizhny Novgorod Internet on nn.ru, the card for "V Aptekakh Goroda i Oblasti" in the snapshot of 24 September 2003 showed "Rating: 129"[4]. The figure describes a moment rather than the whole lifetime of the site: in other surviving snapshots of the same catalogue the publication's cards carry different values and the note "no". No votes at the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day competition are recorded for the site; for more on what can and cannot be said on the basis of the surviving snapshots, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

How it closed

Updates to the home page ceased with issue No. 1 of 17 January 2005[3]. After that the history of the domain is broken: the snapshot of 16 May 2014 finds at apteki.nnov.ru an empty hosting service stub — "Site apteki.nnov.ru just created. Real content coming soon" with the signature of the ISPmanager control panel[2]. In the snapshot of 9 August 2025, however, the same frozen page of January 2005 is served at the address once again, only with an extraneous advertising line at the very bottom[3].

The snapshot of 9 August 2025 is the last one in the web archive[3]. A check of the live address showed that today it returns a default web server page ("Welcome to nginx!"): there is no content on the domain.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2000 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2014 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2025 (issue of 17 January 2005) (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Catalogue of Nizhny Novgorod websites nn.ru, 24 September 2003 (archive)