For now, you will just have to content with it being behind the Iron Curtain. A de facto Russian colony but not part of the USSR.

A small tidbit:
Russian was a compulsory second language. The education system bashed it into my head for 9 years, through all three levels of education (school, college, university) and I absolutely hated every second of it. Russian was, after all, the language of the occupants (so I can fully understand the Afgans or Iraquis who attack British or American bases in their country - not that I agree with such extreme measures but I can understand where they come from).

Which makes it all the more interesting that I married someone whose first language was... guess what?