Reddit reviews Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age

Red Moon Rising by Brzezinski is an engaging, novel-like quick read that dramatizes and summarizes the early space race. Side-by-side history of early US and Soviet space rocketry. Great stuff on the inheritance of the V-2 tech after WWII.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Moon-Rising-Sputnik-Rivalries/dp/080508858X

Korolev by James Harford is about the man without whom the space race wouldn’t have happened. A bit dry (academic) at times, but a well researched book with lots of cool details from first-hand interviews. Korolev was a fascinating guy. An under-appreciated giant of the 20th century.
https://www.amazon.com/Korolev-Masterminded-Soviet-Drive-America/dp/0471327212

Starman by Pierce and Bizony on the meteoric rise and end of Yuri Gagarin. Very engaging. Read for the story of Komarov!
https://www.amazon.com/Starman-Truth-Behind-Legend-Gagarin-ebook/dp/B0052LUE80

Into That Silent Sea/In the Shadow of the Moon by French and Burgess. Another side-by-side. Great history from pre-Sputnik to Apollo, the moon, beyond. Lots of good stuff about individuals on both sides.
https://www.amazon.com/Into-That-Silent-Sea-Trailblazers/dp/080322639X/

Russian Wikipedia. Seriously, run it through Google’s page translate feature, keep a tab open for google translate so you can copy-paste search terms in Russian. Lots of extra info on RU Wikipedia vs EN Wikipedia.

Kamanin’s Diaries. Kamanin was a Red Army General that got assigned as personnel handler for the Cosmonauts. His diaries of the early days are probably the best primary source for and industry forged in a time of uber-secrecy. I haven’t found a full English translation.

English Summaries:
http://www.astronautix.com/k/kamanindiaries.html

Russian Language:
http://militera.lib.ru/db/kamanin_np/index.html

Allow me to expand on u/unicornmaster19's comment. The rocket scientists that he mentions (von Braun, Hirschler, etc) were literally smuggled out of Germany under the noses of the Russians. Author Matthew Brzezinski, in his work [Red Moon Rising] (http://www.amazon.com/Red-Moon-Rising-Sputnik-Rivalries/dp/080508858X) describes the great lengths that the Americans and Russians were willing to go to snatch up the former Nazi scientists, for the use of their own respective rocket projects.

Operation Paperclip, as it was known, was an Office of Strategic Services (OSS, a precursor to the CIA) initiative that focused on finding and "convincing" former Nazi scientist to continue their rocket research for the Allied (mainly U.S.) cause. I use the word "convincing" rather loosely; the Nazi scientist were well aware that the next great conflict, if one should arise, would be between the USSR and the West. The scientists were also well aware of the sentiments and the overall hostility of the Russians towards all Germans, especially those involved in the Nazi party. Although the topic of von Braun and his fellow scientist's "Nazi past" has been widely debated, the fact remains that in the eyes of the Russians, they were all equally guilty of being ardent Nazis.

Realizing this, von Braun and his team of scientists decided to surrender en masse to the Americans. Although they knew that the Americans represented their best chance at continuing their scientific pursuits (not to mention, they had less of a chance of being shot on site by American soldiers than they did if they were to surrender to the Soviets,) the scientists still had reservations for their safety. As was happening all over Germany, hundreds of thousands of German civilians and soldiers were surrendering to the Americans, British, and French, only to be turned away or handed over to the Soviets, which meant almost certain death. As an insurance policy, von Braun had the foresight to hide copies of V-2 missile blueprints near an abandoned mine shaft in the recesses of Mittelwerk, which he would use to bargain for his group's safety if the need were to arise.

After his surrender to American forces on May 2nd, 1945, von Braun gave his American captors the location of various factories (primarily Mittelwerk and Nordhausen) which still contained V-2 missiles and their components. These factories also contained the necessary machinery to create these V-2 parts, which the Americans dismantled and shipped back to the U.S.. One of the most important discoveries that the Americans came across was the highly valued gyroscopic navigation computer that was revolutionary in the V-2, which was later implemented in the U.S. Redstone and Jupiter programs.

Von Braun had played his cards correctly. Not only did he give the Americans the location of Mittelwerk, thereby giving them access to a literal V-2 assembly line complete with parts and machines, but he also was able to continue his work by volunteering to help the Americans with their fledgling rocket program.

The Soviets, on the other hand, had to resort to more "creative" methods of nabbing Nazi scientists. These methods included: kidnapping, holding families for ransom, and "shanghaiing" drunk scientist in the middle of the night. Also, the quality of the missile parts and scientists that the Soviets were able to garner was far from that of the American's haul. What the Soviets got were second rate machines (and their operators,) middle-management type rocket engineers (those familiar with maybe one aspect of the project, but not with the "big picture") and so on. While the Americans indeed had von Braun, the Soviets had two aces up their sleeve when it came to the early Space Race: Sergei Korolev, and Valentin Glushko.

Thus, when it came to Nazi scientists, both the West and the USSR were more than willing to "forgive" them of their Nazi past in exchange for their technical expertise.

EDIT: I thought I would throw in this [picture] (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Project_Paperclip_Team_at_Fort_Bliss.jpg) of von Braun and 100 of his associates at Fort Bliss, Texas, after they were brought to the U.S..

I can recommend Matthew Brzezinski Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age (2008). It's a political history, not a technical one, of the pre-Apollo space race and tells the story from both sides. As an Americanist much of the detail on the Russian side was new to me, and I thought it was presented well.

It's also just $1.95 used on Amazon.

Red Moon Rising was a very entertaining read.