NASA, the Moon program , were created in reaction to the Soviets initiatives in space.

Meaning, had the Soviets not been that good, history would have been written differently.

Once they saw they couldn't match the Americans, they decided to go for long duration flights...

All the way to 1988 when Titov and Manaro spent a full year in space. Polyakov spent 14 months in space (the full year 1994) but that was his idea, his thesis, his creative ideas submitted to the Russians (he saw there was room for someone to stay a very long time and the Russians were convinced ).
But since 1988, Russia hasn't put anybody in space for more than 7 months at once , decided by them.

Also in 1988, the Soviets launched Energya twice and Buran once.....

When Russia took over, the shuttle was gone, the heavy lifter was gone, the ever longer trips in space too, and even Mir....

Very little left for dreams of human space exploration....