The Soviets literally beat the US to every single major milestone in the space program, up through the 60's, except for literally landing men on the moon.
That was deliberate for propaganda purposes. They rushed many of their programs (and got a number of people killed by doing so) and simply never told anyone about the failures. Besides which Sputnik 1 wasn't very useful, but it was what they could rush out the door once they knew the US launch schedule.
Not to say the US Apollo program was fundamentally different... it was just much much bigger. And unlike the Soviets the US published their failures (see the Apollo 1 fire).
Odd to think about how much progress was generated thanks to national pride and propaganda. What a strange time in the history of the world.
The photos, the huge effort involved, and general strangeness of Venus is a great read. Lots of good youtube docs as well.