The Russians beat us to all but the last milestone: first object in space, first human in space, first probe to land on the moon, and first probe to photograph the far side of the moon. The Russians would have beat us to the moon landing if the head of their space program hadn’t died on the home stretch of the space race.

Depends on what you care about.

For years they were the only vehicle taking humans to and from orbit.

Space Shuttle killed more people than Soyuz in fewer launches.

That's a non-sequitur, the parent comment simply said they were really good at aerospace.