kvintor.r52.ru was the site of Kvintor LLC, a Nizhny Novgorod diversified manufacturing company with an office on Prospekt Gagarina in Nizhny Novgorod and a phone number in the 8312 area code[1]. The site lived in the Nizhny Novgorod regional domain zone r52.ru; the Wayback Machine's snapshots of the home page span the period from August 3, 2001 to April 17, 2005[1]. The domain no longer exists today, and the only surviving text of the site is a snapshot of the home page from October 12, 2002[1].
The company
As the home page stated, Kvintor LLC "was founded in early 1999 on the basis of the well-known company CJSC Tornado"[1]. In its first years the firm was mainly engaged in developing and manufacturing ammunition for gas-powered weapons, and by the time the site appeared it described itself as a diversified enterprise with a scientific-technical department and several production sites[1].
The home page named two main lines of business: the development and production of pellets for pneumatic weapons, and the production of alkaline electrolytes[1]. On sales of the pellets, the site wrote that the products were "well known to practically all gun shops in Russia, from Kaliningrad to Nakhodka," while the electrolytes were supplied not only to enterprises in Nizhny Novgorod and the surrounding region but also to neighboring regions — Chuvashia, Mordovia, Mari El, Samara, and Kirov[1].
Kvintor's Nizhny Novgorod ties went beyond its address: the company stated that it carried out joint development work with scientific and academic centers in Nizhny Novgorod, and that among its staff were two candidates of chemical sciences[1]. For further details the site referred readers to a print publication — the newspaper "Poisk-NN," issue no. 9 of September 6, 2000[1].
What the site looked like
This was a small corporate brochure-style site. The "About the company" menu had five items: "General information," "Our partners," "Cooperation proposals," "Our details," and "Directions"[1]. The site opened with "General information" itself — a text of several paragraphs on the company's history and products; there is no news feed, price list, or product catalog in the surviving text[1].
The page footer carried full contact details: postal address "603003, Nizhny Novgorod, P.O. box 19," an office at Prospekt Gagarina 23, building 5, office 245, phone 8 (8312) 65-74-51, fax 8 (8312) 65-80-33, and the email kvintor@r52.ru — in the same Nizhny Novgorod domain zone as the site itself[1]. There was also a maker's credit there: "Made by Yegor Chernorukov's Studio"[1]. No visitor counters are visible in the surviving text of the home page[1].
Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet
In the nn.ru site directory, Kvintor was listed under "Firms (Enterprises): Consumer goods, Stores: Manufacturing" — next to the Start plant, Grand Tabak, and the Polimersnab trading house[2]. The directory's description was noticeably broader than what the home page itself said: "Diversified enterprise producing pellets for pneumatic weapons, health syrups, wine drinks, electrolytes, drive chains"[2]. Syrups, wine drinks, and drive chains are not mentioned anywhere on the surviving home page[1].
The site was not a notable one. In the directory listing as of September 16, 2003, Kvintor's rating field read "none" — unlike its neighbor in the category, the Start plant, which did have a rating listed[2]. The surviving samples from Counter.nn.ru, on which the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating was based, likewise record no traffic figures for this site. This site does not appear in the final voting results table of Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day for 2004[3].
That was the typical role of a manufacturing company's site in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the early 2000s: not a media outlet, not a community, but a handful of pages with contact details and a route map, put up so that a gun shop on the other side of the country could find its supplier's address and phone number.
How it closed
The Wayback Machine's index for kvintor.r52.ru holds only eleven captures in total, and almost all of them are empty: substantive text survives only in the 2002 snapshot[1]. The last capture of the site in the Wayback Machine is dated April 17, 2005[1]. The domain kvintor.r52.ru no longer exists; where the company moved on to, and whether it is still operating, cannot be said from our materials.
Sources
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
- web.archive.org — nn.ru site directory, "Manufacturing" category, 2003 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day voting results, 2004 (archive)