Failson desperately tries to explain why the primitive Slavic hordes actually didn't beat the superior Anglo-Saxon ubermensch in the space race. 
Failson desperately tries to explain why the primitive Slavic hordes actually didn't beat the superior Anglo-Saxon ubermensch in the space race.
It is not just that they could do it, but the speed at which they achieved it was what was truly shocking to the capitalist West.
From reverse engineering the A-4 (V-2) to serial production of the world’s first ICBM in 12 years is nuts. This was a feat that has not been and likely will never be repeated again in history. Stalin was a true visionary and while many have questioned his decisions in other respects, on the space program he made crucial decisions that allowed the USSR to take the lead. History would turned out very different if it had been someone else in charge making slightly different decisions along this process.
As soon as the war ended, Stalin set 3 national priorities for the USSR: air defense, atomic bomb and the space program (ICBM). Today, even 30 years after USSR collapsed and Russia’s economy is ruined, it is still a leading nation in air defense systems, nuclear technology and ICBMs. As long as Russia maintains its lead on all three fronts, NATO will never be able to invade Russia.
All these decisions made in the 1940s.