It is curious to recall that 50 years ago, it was Moscow issuing the invitations to a world happy to beat a path to its door.

The occasion was the International University Sport Federation (FISU) Games, also known as the Universiade. 

It was the first time a major international multi-sport Games had been to Moscow, capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as greater Russia was then known.

There was also the enticing prospect of an even bigger sporting party in Moscow to come.

"The Moscow Games will be followed attentively by the leaders of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and international sports federations because Moscow is bidding for the 1980 Olympic Games," explained the English language Soviet Weekly.

"Efficient organisation and promotion of the student Games would be a strong argument in favour of the city,"

For almost three decades after the 1917 revolution, Russia and the wider Soviet Union had lived up to Sir Winston Churchill's famous assessment as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

The Soviet world had only become part of the "Olympic Family" in 1952.

In 1962, Moscow welcomed the IOC session and even then it seemed clear that the ultimate ambition was to host an Olympics.

A Moscow bid for the 1976 Games was launched.

Mayor Vladimir Promyslov forecast a budget of approximately $200 million (£166million/€187 million) would be needed.

Moscow was the fourth city to bid for these Games, alongside Montreal, Los Angeles, and Florence.

"Evidently the time has come for the Olympics to be held in a Socialist country and not be the preserve of the Western countries," Soviet National Olympic Committee President Konstantin Adrianov declared.

Moscow sent lavishly illustrated books and recordings of famous Muscovite folk songs to IOC members.

"None of the other countries will be able to offer such a vast cultural programme," Soviet Culture Minister Yekaterina Furtseva claimed.

By the time the IOC gathered in Amsterdam to vote on May 12 in 1970, Florence had fallen by the wayside.

Moscow lost to Montreal but they had polled more votes than Los Angeles.

The Soviets resolved to try again for 1980, again with Los Angeles as opposition.

Then in December 1971 at a meeting in Paris, FISU decided to award the 1973 Summer Universiade to the City.

Moscow had plenty of sports facilities already, an ideal way of demonstrating the city's Olympic capability.

The centrepiece was to be the vast Lenin stadium on the banks of the Moskva river.

"Urgent preparations are under way," Universiade '73 Organising Committee chief Vladimir Bogatikov soon announced.

"Preparations have been helping to popularise student sport in the USSR."

Sergei Ivanov of the Stormy Petrel student sport organisation believed that hosting the Universiade would demonstrate the importance of sport in the Soviet Union.

"The work of sport and physical culture departments and the sports clubs of colleges and universities have improved," he said.

Stormy Petrel was one of many student groups which helped with preparations.

They made arrangements for artistic exhibitions, the screening of sports films and an "international youth club".

Moscow also welcomed figures from "friendly" nations, amongst them Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat.

IOC President Lord Killanin stood alongside FISU President Primo Nebiolo at the Opening Ceremony in August 1973.

Tatiana Efimova, a student at the Moscow Institute of Engineering, presented gifts of bread and salt, a Russian custom to welcome guests.

The standard of competition was sky high.

Italy’s Pietro Mennea won the men’s 200 metres and there was a first international title for a Cuban phenomenon. 

Alberto Juantorena was to become Olympic champion at both 400m and 800m.

At the gymnastics hall, the darling of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, gymnast Olga Korbut,won four of the five individual titles open to her and also collected team gold.

She was then still a student at the Pedagogical Institute in her home town of Grodno.

Nikolai Adrianov, floor exercises champion at Munich 1972, offered a foretaste of his future Olympic exploits  as he won five gold medals.

Soviets also dominated the fencing competition which included a 19-year -old West German student in the men’s foil.

"My experience at the Universiade was an important part of my life in sport," Thomas Bach recalled years later.

"What I remember most from having competed in two editions of the Universiade in Moscow 1973 and in Mexico City 1979, is the wonderful atmosphere of openness,

"There is an immediate connection and sense of camaraderie with other university student athletes."

Not everything ran completely smoothly. 

Veteran Olympic watcher John Rodda of The Guardian likened the Athletes’ village to "Colditz".

At the Opening Ceremony, the Israeli team were greeted with boos and whistles.

Later It was reported that Soviet police officers had torn down Israeli flags which carried good luck messages written in Hebrew.

"It is a little sad, they think we’re here for politics, we just came to compete," Israel’s FISU representative Adin Talbar reflected.

Official Soviet media brushed off the criticism.

"The insinuation and the slanders form part of a deliberate plan by Anti-Soviet groups who are horrified at the prospect of Moscow being invited to host the 1980 Olympics," they claimed.

Voting on the Olympic host city was to be made in Vienna in late 1974, but many wondered if these incidents might derail Moscow’s aspirations.

It seemed unlikely.

"The Organising Committee have done a tremendous job, the condition of the sports facilities is such that it would be hard to imagine anything better," Nebiolo enthused.

The official Olympic Review reported "incomparable hospitality and kindness," shown to guests from the IOC and International Federations.

"Sport is a messenger of peace," Sergei Pavlov, chairman of the USSR Physical Culture and Sports Committee, said. 

"Universiade 73 has achieved its purpose, a new and good contribution has been made in Moscow in cooperation, mutual understanding and peaceful competition in sport."

Pavlov was part of Moscow's delegation in Vienna.

"Moscow is a city capable of organising anything, regardless of scale,"  IOC vice-president Jean de Beaumont claimed.

"We would do everything possible to assure success." Moscow Mayor Vladimir Promyslov promised. 

At the vote,Lord Killanin requested that the exact results of voting should not be made public.

The figures were not announced at the time, but it was later revealed that Moscow had polled 39 votes against 20 for Los Angeles, figures accepted by the respected database Olympedia.

Now official Soviet state publicity went into overdrive.

Some previous offerings had seemed rather drab but Games organisers produced a bulletin at regular intervals published in a variety of languages, printed on glossy paper with colour photographs.

A prestige magazine called Olympic Panorama was also distributed around the world.

In 1979 the Soviets threw open their domestic Spartakiade to international competitors.

Officials claimed that 50 million took part in the preliminary events "in schools, factories and all kinds of institutions and organisations," across the Soviet Union.

"The trumpets will sound for the start of the biggest competitions, not just in the history of Soviet sport but in world sport," the official bulletin announced. 

"Soviet Spartakiades outstrip even the Olympics in terms of the numbers of competitors and the variety of sports on the programme,”

"It is a true festival of the entire community a testimony to the flourishing of Soviet sporting talent,”

Competitors from 87 nations took part.

An advance party from American Television network NBC had already arrived to begin their Olympic preparations

"The Soviets are using many American techniques and are learning quickly," NBC executive producer Don Ohlmeyer wrote in an article for the broadcaster's in-house magazine, later reproduced in Olympic Review.

"As things are going now, I have every reason to believe that the Olympic telecasts will be not only be the biggest ever, but the best as well."

It might have been thought that nothing would be done to jeopardise the success of the great Olympic spectacle in Moscow.

Then, in the last few days of 1979 Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan in what ultimately proved to be a great military misadventure.

American President Jimmy Carter shouted loudest for a boycott, a call supported by Canada, Japan and Germany, which meant Bach was unable to fence for a second Olympic gold medal.

Olympic officials in France, Australia, Britain and some other countries resisted the pressure from their Governments to compete.

In July 1980 the word peace, or at least its Russian translation, was heard many times during the supremely impressive Olympic Opening Ceremony. 

It had a hollow ring.

As the chimes of the clock in Red Square were relayed by loud speaker across the Stadium, it was a reminder that the political and military ambitions of the grey men within the Kremlin had all but throttled the greatest festival of sport and peace.