July 20, 1969 America landed a man on the moon. This event essentially ended the "Space Race" between the USSR and USA.
The Soviets had previously accomplished 5 distinct space travel milestones:
1 First man-made object in space (Sputnik 1)
2 First living creature in space (Sputnik 2 with Laika the dog)
3 First man in space (Vostok 1 with Yuri Gagarin)
4 First woman in space (Vostok 6 with Valentina Tereshkova)
5 First space walk in space (Voskhod 2 with Alexei Leonov)
Why would the Soviets allow America to claim their moon landing milestone with a "faked" landing?
Even if you claim the 5 milestones aren't real, the question still remains, why would USSR allow US to steal their space thunder?
How is it that one side didn't call the other out saying they hadn't gone to space?
The Cold War was all about making the other side look bad. There was no cooperation between the two nations. It was called a Cold War for a reason.