Tribute to Soviet Union's great reformist, Mikhail Gorbachev

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, talks with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the start of a news conference at the Castle of Gottorf in Schleswig, northern Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2004. [AP Photo]

Growing up, we knew that the world had two superpowers - the United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), better known as the Soviet Union.

I believed that the USSR was stronger because it had more letters! Both nuclear-armed, the two superpowers just sabre-rattled with nuclear tests. They recruited other countries to their camps.