Ram - check it again yourself - Sir Frank Whittle was British. Patent applied for in 1930, granted 1932.
Russians never "captured" any German rocket scientists - they never made it as far West, Von Braun et al went to the States.
Soviet space program was "homegrown" and miles ahead of an American one - it worked, Mir was up there for 15 years (whatever happened to that SkyLab thing anyway?
), space launches became routine, it worked reliable and to the point of becoming almost commercially viable... Until the funding had run out.
Btw, Soviet shuttles (a Russian idea again - Soviet chief designer Sergey Korol'ev published sketches back in late 50s...) had fully automated landings pioneering the completely crew-less cargo-haul into space.
As for "saving our ass" point which seem to be so popular in certain circles across the pond I'd like to point out that those were Russian T-34s and IS-2s on the streets of Berlin in May 1945, not American Shermans. By the time "the saviours of our asses" landed in Normandy the Soviet army had already made it's way back from Moscow into Europe. And before you even think "lend-lease" I'll tell you that we paid for it, in gold, for every Jeep, tank, plane, tin of beef.
