Soviet cars weren't all bad: the excellence of Soviet engineering in the military field sometimes filtered through to civilian life.

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At first, Katz said, he didn't believe him, sure that the Soviet authorities would find a way to scupper the plans.

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Khrushchev concluded that because the Americans hadn't listed the missiles on their list of demands, the Soviet Union's interests would be well served by keeping them in Cuba.

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It has built one of the world's fastest-growing economies, thanks mainly to the large-scale export of oil, metals and grains, which helps to ensure that it doesn't rely too heavily for trade on Russia, its former Soviet neighbor, or on China.

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Anzor said he grew up in Soviet times, when it was taken for granted that Muslims didn't have to follow such strict rules.

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According to Piers Bizony, the rival schemes sucked resources from each other: "There was a great deal of confusion in the Soviet space effort in the late 1960s and as a result they didn't have the technology to send a man to the Moon, " he says.

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Filatov was a student in Minsk when the Soviet Union fell and recalls being stunned by the news that his country didn't exist anymore.

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But Tamerlan Tsarnaev held a passport from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, where he was born, so his remains can't be sent to Russia, said Zaurbek Sadakhanov, a lawyer for the parents.

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