The Space Race was always quite literally a competition between US and Soviet governments to establish a technological first and win a place in human history. With Sputnik, Laika, Gagarin and Leonov all beating America to the punch with landmark achievements over the previous years, putting a man on the moon first became the primary objective for both countries. Russia was close to realising the dream of a red moon until the catastrophic failures of the massive N1 launch vehicle both devastated the main launch facility and wiped out most of the base staff. The Saturn 5 beating rocket was to place an almost completely automated landing craft with a single cosmonaut on the moon ahead of the american crew, but two terrible failures during testing put an end to the Soviet hopes to beat the US to the moon. Or did they ?
As Apollo 11's crew coasted silently to lunar orbit a much smaller craft had been dispatched amid a cloud of soviet secrecy and circled the moon to await their arrival. Luna 15 was ostensibly an attempt to return a sample of moon dust to earth ahead of the american crew, but as it was being tracked fom Earth, it became apparent that the probe would be in a position to directly overfly the intended landing site of Apollo and Sir Bernard Lovell, watching from Jodrell Bank Observatory speculated that after several course corrections, the probe might actually crash into the tops of the rilles surrounding the Sea of Tranquility, so low was its course. An audio recording of the actual event can be heard here: http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/news/2009/luna15-apollo11/ and Sir Bernard can be heard commenting on the descent of the probe as it happened during coverage of the moon landing. It transpired that Luna 15 eventually crashed some distance from the Apollo mission, and no samples were ever returned. Soviet spin doctors were quick to dismiss any negative publicity and suggestions that it was intended to jam the transmissions from the LEM or provide a propaganda victory over the US, but the fact remains that the soviet mission came very close - both literally and lunagraphically to the Apollo crew.
'Red Moon', a fictional account of the Luna 15 mission suggested that the probe was actually carrying a manned capsule - the 'Feniks' and the authors sought out the technical expertise of an aerospace expert Mark Wade, to see if it would be technically feasible to place a cosmonaut on the moon ahead of the US mission using a Vostok-style capsule. Mark proposed that it was possible and offered his proposed flight plan: http://www.luna15.com/redmoon/profile.html
It would have been a last ditch effort to beat the US to the moon and the cosmonaut would have been at the mercy of Earth control, but the idea of a cosmonaut waiting on the surface of the moon as Armstrong stepped out of the LEM could have been a very desirable objective for Soviet Russia at the time. Lets hope that it only ever remained in the realms of fiction.
On a more positive note, Luna 17 did manage to soft land on the moon some years later, bearing Lunokhod 1 - a remotely controlled rover which sent back much detailed information about the lunar surface and also found its way into the form of a rather ingenious little toy from Spanish maker, Congost. The little Lunokhod truck sits atop a Luna 17 lander and is lowered by a small chain onto a cardboard moon surface. the rover rolls off, and by a system of levers and springs, flips down a magnetic arm to collect a small 'tin' moon rock. This is then flicked back up into the open body of the rover as the red lid opens to accept it. Scaled at around golden astronaut size, this is a rare and wonderful toy and a delight to watch in action.
