They put the first human and satellite in space. Not bad for those who see russians as a bunch of cave dwellers
Those days are over though. Russians are so corrupt nowadays that they'll steal from each other so they'll never get anything built.
And they sent NASA astronauts to the ISS during the period when NASA couldn’t.
Only because we didn't listen to von Braun. He proposed a satellite launch in 1954, saying it could be done in the 1955-56 time frame. He was ignored. Same thing for the first manned flight.
After the Apollo 11 moon landing, he was asked how we beat the Russians to the moon when they had such a headstart. He said, "Because our Germans were better than their Germans.