The fan site of a Russian Premier League football team FC Terek Grozny launched a wonderful little service on its forum on Jan. 23: "Photo of Grozny on Request." Here's the translation (from Russian) of the details provided by one of the site's admins, Solid:

Dear users,

We'd like to let you know that at our site we're now trying out a service called "Photo of Grozny on Request." In this thread, you may leave your requests for photos of specific places in Grozny (street, neighborhood, house, school, offices, etc.), and our representatives will photograph the location and post a picture here.

Please understand that the requests will not be fulfilled right away (from one to seven days, and possibly longer). At present, only one person will be working on it (Virus), and he does not always have the time or opportunity to visit the requested locations.

Please, only one request from the same person per week. The service is free. Requests will be accepted only from the registered users.

One more person - nicknamed DiNaMiT - very soon agreed to join Virus in finding and photographing the Chechen capital's sites. So far, only two people have sent in their requests.

The first one came five days ago, on March 4, from Boris:

I'd really like to see what happened to my native house and backyard. Pervomayskaya #83. It's near School #7. There were two 9-storeyed buildings there, one was long, the other shorter and with two entrances. The short one is #83. Thank you very much in advance.

It took them one day to get the picture (follow the link to view the photo full-size):



And here's Boris' reply:

You can't imagine how grateful I am to you. I was happy to see that the building is intact. My dearest childhood memories are connected with this building and with Grozny in general. A huge thanks to you! I'm glad there are people like you who are ready to help us - we miss our native city and the favorite places in it so much!

The second person, Yanchik, a female, must have had two requests but I've only found one:

Solid, you remember my request, and here's one more, at Staryye Promysly there was a plot #69 and I basically spent my childhood there, and I'd really love to have a look at what became of it.....I haven't seen it in like 20 years.....if you have questions about its whereabouts, knock on my icq and I'll explain....thanks in advance

Here're two photos from what must be the first location - a view of Yanchik's building and a view from one of the balconies in her building (follow the links to view the originals):





And Yanchik's thank you note, typed in a large, red font:

well what can I say...huge thanks to you guys...I feel like I've visited home...oy, no words only emotions.....anyway, huge RESPECT to you people.....thank you....and a special thanks to solid for having once given me a link to your forum.....

Solid, and to you also here's a huge thanks from my parents...they were totally delighted