Now if my learning of history is correct, and I am sure that my teachers in American did not lie, the space program for the USSR was the brain child of Germans. My father used to say that we have our ( nashi Niemchti) Germans ( von Braun) and the Soviets theirs !!!
So the space race was Nazi vs Nazi and the Nazi's won ha ha
Actually the race for space was the chiild of Goddard an American ROCKETMAN !!!