USSR have sent the first probe to the Moon in 1959, Luna-2.
First photos of the dark side - Luna-3, also 1959.
First soft-landing on the Moon and TV transmittion from the surface - Luna-9, 1966.
First artificial sattelite of the Moon - Luna-10, 1966.
First return to Earth at escape-velosity after orbiting Moon - Zond-5, 1968.
Zond probes were in fact Soviet Moon programm returnable capsules, flew unmanned, had some animals aboard.
At the same time, 1968, the landing module, L-1, was ready. Powerfull launch vehicle was the main problem. Proton was extremely unreliable at that time, and uses toxic fuel components (UDMH). N-1 launch vehicle was still too "raw". Because of some strange kind of competition between R&D firms - main engines were developed by Kuznetsov design bureau, that had no experience in liquid-fueled rocket engines. The N-1 programm was finally abandoned in mid-70s. Launch site was used later for Energiya/Buran.
Soviet Moon spaceship (L-1) had a crew of 2 men, orbital module pilot and lander pilot. A whole team of cosmonauts was trained for Moon mission, including Alexey Leonov, the first man to go out of spaceship to outer space, later- an Appolo-Soyuz mission participant. I have some interesting documental films about that programm, showing cosmonaut's trainings and different tests.
In Soviet times there was absolutely no information availible to public about Soviet Moon programm, first things appeared in early-90s.
