Well, Venera 4 was the first successful landing on Venus, but not the only one, being followed by NASA's Pioneer Venus 2. Leaving that aside, The Soviets failed

Well, Venera 4 was the first successful landing on Venus, but not the only one, being followed by NASA's Pioneer Venus 2. Leaving that aside, The Soviets failed in their main objective of landing on the moon, at least partially due to resource constraints, which forced them to use unconventional approaches in their development program. In addition to that, their Mars program was a total failure. Regardless of those details, Soviet state funding of science and technology failed to give them a technological edge in the cold war, or greater scientific prestige than the USA. Both the USA and USSR spent a lot of money on satellite states and allies, but the Soviets put a larger proportion of their money into these sorts of power plays than the Americans did, largely because the US government does not command as large a share of the economy.