Did the Soviet Union ever successfully send men to the moon using their own spacecraft?
No. The only men ever to reach the moon were NASA astronauts–American citizens all. There were six landings–Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17–thus twelve astronauts who have walked on the moon. Apollo 13 of course, made history in its own way. If memory serves, the Soviet Union was making only token efforts to reach the moon by the late 60’s, when it was clear they were being outclassed in this field by the U.S. They turned their resources to space endurance, and led the way in orbital space stations.They did, I believe, crash land an unmanned craft on the moon a little before the Apollo 11 landing, and so earned a footnote in the moon “race”. It was a failed attempt to collect soil/rock samples and return them to earth ahead of Apollo 11.
