According to his account on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte, Tsarnaev graduated from the Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, a Massachusetts high school, in 2011, and attended School No. 1 in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, from 1999 to 2001.
He appears to have been a good student, having received a a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge in 2011 to pursue college. He was also named a wrestling all-star at his high school the same year.
On his VKontakte page (Russia's Facebook), Tsarnaev says he considers "career and money" most important in life. As his worldview, he wrote: "Islam".
The page says Tsarnaev speaks English, Russian and Chechen, and belongs to a number of groups devoted to Chechnya. Dagestan, a republic neighbouring Chechnya, maintains a small Chechen minority.
Tsarnaev was born on 22 July 1993, just before a fierce battle for independence broke out in the republic of Chechnya, attempting to secede from Russia in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Over time, the independence movement grew increasingly Islamist in character. Largely quashed by Moscow, a low-level insurgency persists in Chechnya and has leaked into neighbouring Dagestan.
On VKontakte, Tsarnaev follows several pages devoted to Islam. He also lists one of his favorite songs as Hey Sexy Lady"by Shaggy.