2001.smi-nn.ru was the site of an informational and journalistic project, the "Nizhny Novgorod Yearbook. 2001," conceived and produced by a group of journalists from the "Monitoring nizhegorodskikh SMI" (Monitoring of Nizhny Novgorod Media) agency in the winter of 2001–2002[1]. The yearbook summed up one year in the life of Nizhny Novgorod: the City Council, the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the city's markets, urban architecture, the press[1]. The year stood right in the site's name: 2001.smi-nn.ru — a subdomain of the agency's smi-nn.ru. The first snapshot of the site in the web archive is dated 29 November 2002[1], the last — 16 August 2022, when the address already carried the registrar's placeholder page[3].

What the site looked like

The home page opened with the headline "Monitoring of Nizhny Novgorod Media | Nizhny Novgorod Yearbook 2001" and a menu of four items: "About the Project," "Contents," "Who's Who," and "One Year in My City"[1]. Below the menu ran a column of dates — 29, 28, 27, 26, and 25 November 2002[1].

The editorial stance was set out right there. As the home page stated, in working on the project the authors and compilers "did not try to condemn this or that person, this or that event in the city's life, did not seek to give anyone or anything an assessment," but on the contrary tried "to bring as little of their own into it as possible and show as much of others' opinion as possible": "other people's words, other people's comments, other people's assessments: of journalists, politicians, political scientists"[1]. The project's central theme was declared to be "one year in the life of the city"[1].

One year in my city

A notable part of the home page was taken up by the section of the same name — short remarks on the most important event of 2001, posted on 16 September 2002[1]. Gennady Khodyrev, under the headline "I knew what I was getting into," named the gubernatorial election as the brightest and most significant event, taking up nearly half a year of life and running to two rounds[1]. Alexey Evgenyevich Likhachev, in the remark "We have stopped being a province," listed among the year's most important events for the region the arrival of the new governor and "the final distribution of major property"[1]. Sergei Abyshev ("The Duma will already go down in history") named his own election as chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma as the year's most important event[1]. Natalia Zvyagintseva, in the note "Change of Elites," named as the most notable event the death of Nikolai, Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, noting that the assessment was subjective[1].

Yearbook table of contents

Further down the home page was a list of the issue's materials, giving a sense of the Nizhny Novgorod agenda for 2001: "Bipolarity, Nizhny Novgorod Style," "Lebedev PRO" and "Lebedev CONTRA," "Silver Archer," "The City's New Duma," "Results of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma Deputy Elections," "Dress Rehearsal for the Gubernatorial Election," "Election of the City Duma Chairman: Opposition Fronde," "Abyshev: PRO" and "Abyshev: CONTRA," "Faces of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma," "Deputy Groups," "The Duma's Main Theme," "Fathers of the City," "Weather Surprises," "The City's Markets," "Cinema Openings," "High Technology," "Urban Architecture," "Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas," "Advertising and Campaigning," "Mass Media"[1]. The text of the snapshot preserved by us breaks off at the next item on the list, so the issue's complete table of contents is unknown[1].

Place in the The Internet

By genre this was not a news feed or a corporate calling card, but a completed digest of a single year, produced by a news agency and left on the web as a separate publication. According to our Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating, the site is recorded in the nn.ru directory (the /rub/ section) with the description: a project of the "Monitoring nizhegorodskikh SMI" news agency, "One Year in the Life of the City — Politics, Economy, Society." In the directory's listing next to it stood "Rating: none" — no traffic figures for it were recorded in the Counter.nn.ru rating; among the participants of Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day it does not appear in our materials. Otherwise, the yearbook's trace in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet is limited to the directory listing and archived copies.

How it closed

Our twenty-year sweep of the web archive turned up 46 snapshots at this address. By 28 May 2022 the content had already disappeared: in the yearbook's place stood a standard placeholder page reading "Site under construction," with hosting advertisements — "Making a site is as easy as one-two-three!" — offers to register a domain, order a hosting plan or a dedicated server, links to the Expired.ru service for snapping up expiring domains, and a note reading "Domain registered through i7.RU"[2]. The last snapshot in the web archive is dated 16 August 2022 and shows the same placeholder page[3]. Today the domain is not registered, and the texts of the "Nizhny Novgorod Yearbook" survive in the archived copies.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 28 May 2022 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 16 August 2022 (archive)