> N1-L3 was underfunded and undertested, and started development in October 1965, almost four years after the Saturn V. The project was badly derailed by the death of its chief designer Sergei Korolev in 1966. [...]
In any case, Soviets certainly had plenty of successes too[1]. It would be hard to claim that USA won the "space race" just because they were the first with that milestone, especially since landing on the moon was perhaps the least useful achievement of all space programs; we still have satellites, space stations, ICBMs and manned spacecraft (all pioneered by Soviets), but no one has bother to go to the moon again.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_%28rocket%29 [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program#Notable_f...