Since Spring 1945, Korolev was much more able to control resources, getting to reconstructing V-2 manufacturing - Soviet version, of course, dubbed R-1 - then u

Since Spring 1945, Korolev was much more able to control resources, getting to reconstructing V-2 manufacturing - Soviet version, of course, dubbed R-1 - then upgrades to R-2 and R-3, then even more powerful R-5 - all alcohol-based - and then, starting from 1953, working on R-7. One interesting piece of history (Chertok wrote about it in his memoirs) - in Spring 1961, just before Gagarin's flight, which, of course, was priority number 1, Korolev managed to worry about upcoming R-9 testing, saying to his people "after Gagarin, they won't allow us to work on R-9 as easily". Korolev did enjoy significant freedom in how he did things - the Council of Main Designers was created thanks to that freedom, and von Braun's decision to add fifth F-1 to Saturn just because he felt it will be needed - bypassing all bureaucracy - would be quite understood by Korolev and his team, they had similar things done themselves. It was often the case that Korolev went to Kremlin with some space-related offerings, and got green light, after the principal work was already done, and more scaled-up development was all what remained. You have to work your asses off this way of course, but you have full support of your political bosses and you're a hero for everybody.