"Political Forum of Dzerzhinsk" (1dzer.ru) — a news aggregator, bulletin board, and discussion forum about the politics of Dzerzhinsk, operating under the motto "Non-participation in politics does not free you from its consequences" from at least early 2013 through January 2022 [1][2]. Over the course of nearly ten years, the site accumulated several thousand forum threads and hundreds of articles — ranging from reprints of federal columnists to a years-long chronicle of the legal battle waged by Dzerzhinsk's dismissed Mayor [3][4].

How it was organized

The site was divided into sections: "Articles," "News," "Photos," "Videos," and "Forum"; the administration could be contacted at 1dzer.ru@gmail.com [1]. Alongside political headlines, the pages hosted a banner for the foreign dating site "meet and marry russian women" and visit counters from 24log.ru — the typical advertising companions for a site of that era [1].

In the summer of 2013, the editorial team tallied up its own output and published the result: in July alone, 92 items had been published [3]. By 2016, the "Forum" section contained 339 threads on city politics, 398 on Dzerzhinsk "Society," another 389 and 231 on regional topics, and 2,224 threads on the politics of "the Country and the World" — the count ran into the thousands [5]. Among its partners, the site listed the public group "Dzerzhinsk residents for public transport" and the publication Russkaya Vesna [5].

The news feed mixed Dzerzhinsk local incidents with the federal agenda side by side: on a single day, the "Contacts" section featured such items as "More than 77% of internet users report that utility payment increases... exceeded 12%" and "Ksenia Sobchak spoke with an investigator for about an hour... about oral sex" [1].

From across the spectrum

"Politforum" was first and foremost a reprint outlet: in a content analysis of its own July 2013 output, the editorial team acknowledged that materials from federal and regional Mass Media predominated, even though the main subject matter was local [3]. Among the sources were Kasparov.ru, the TV channel Dozhd, Novaya Gazeta (listed as a foreign agent), and Forbes.ru — alongside the patriotic outlets Zavtra and Sovetskaya Rossiya, and the Nizhny Novgorod publications "APN Nizhny Novgorod," PolitKukhnya, and NIA [3].

The chart of most-reprinted authors was topped by Nizhny Novgorod sociologist and publicist Aleksandr Prudnik; second by number of publications was "Igor Artemyev" — acknowledged by the editorial team itself to be a collective pseudonym under which different people prepared materials [6]. Other names whose columns the forum reprinted included Zhores Alfyorov, Aleksey Navalny, Zakhar Prilepin, and Evgeniy Royzman — figures who had no connection to Dzerzhinsk itself: the site took others' texts from across the full spectrum of opinion rather than commissioning its own [6].

The Sopin Affair

In November 2012, the Dzerzhinsk city council removed the popularly elected mayor Viktor Sopin from office; over the next two years, Politforum kept a detailed and sympathetic chronicle of his legal efforts to reclaim his seat — from hearings at the district court all the way to the Supreme Court [7][8]. The headlines speak for themselves: "The city remembers: a list of deputies who voted for the dismissal of the popularly elected mayor," "Viktor Sopin as Joan of Arc," "Dzerzhinsk justice has once again sided with the mayor's opponents" [8][9][10].

In August 2014, the site published a video address by Sopin to members of the "Sopin — Our Mayor" group on Odnoklassniki — by that point the former mayor had acquired his own support group on the social network [11].

Noticed by academia

One of the forum's republished articles also caught the attention of the academic community. The article "Slave Labor Legalized in Russia" — a piece by Vlad Rukhanov, originally published on forum.msk.ru, about Law No. 108-FZ and the benefits granted to contractors of the 2018 FIFA World Cup regarding the hiring of foreign labor — was posted by "Politforum" in August 2013 [4]. The text was later cited four times in a row in the footnotes of an article on the estate structure of modern Russia, published in a journal from the circle of Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye [12].

The end

The last materials found date to January 2022: reports on the closure of School No. 10 [2]. By March 2022, the address was already showing a standard nginx placeholder with not a single page of the site remaining [13]. The domain did not vanish without a trace: by 2025, a casino accepting bets in rubles was operating on it — the usual fate of an abandoned Runet address [14].

Main page by year

The online publication Novaya Gazeta has been entered into the register of foreign agents by decision of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated 4 September 2026, under Article 7 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ of 14 July 2022 "On Control over the Activities of Persons under Foreign Influence"[15].

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Web Archive — Homepage of 1dzer.ru, snapshot dated April 2, 2013 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Articles" section, most recent materials from January 2022 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Content Analysis of the Dzerzhinsk Political Forum," snapshot dated August 1, 2014 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Slave Labor Legalized in Russia," snapshot dated August 13, 2014 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Forum" section with topic counts by subforum, snapshot dated January 13, 2016 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Contacts" page of 1dzer.ru with news feed, snapshot dated August 9, 2013 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "The City Remembers…" — list of deputies who voted for the mayor's resignation, snapshot dated August 1, 2014 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Viktor Sopin on the Court's Decision…": an interview, snapshot dated August 6, 2014 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Viktor Sopin as Joan of Arc," snapshot dated August 2, 2014 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Web Archive — "Dzerzhinsk Justice Once Again Takes the Side of the Mayor's Opponents," snapshot dated July 26, 2014 (archive)
  11. web.archive.org — Web Archive — Viktor Sopin's video address to the "Sopin Is Our Mayor" group, snapshot dated August 20, 2014 (archive)
  12. web.archive.org — Web Archive — Homepage of 1dzer.ru, snapshot dated March 5, 2022 — nginx placeholder page (archive)
  13. nlobooks.ru — Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye (publishing house)
  14. web.archive.org — Web Archive — 1dzer.ru, snapshot dated April 24, 2025 — online casino website (archive)
  15. minjust.gov.ru — Реестр иностранных агентов — Министерство юстиции Российской Федерации, запись № 1257