Nevertheless, production and launching of the R-1 gave the Soviets valuable experience which later enabled the USSR to construct its own much more capable rockets.

In 1945 the Soviets captured several key A-4 (V-2) rocket production facilities, and also gained the services of some German scientists and engineers related to the project.

Under the supervision of the Special technical Commission (OTK) established by the Soviet Union to oversee rocketry operations in Germany, A-4s were assembled and studied.

88, which had produced artillery and tanks during World War II into NII-88, tasked with managing the Soviet Union's long-range rocketry programs.

The experience derived from assembling and launching these rockets was directly applied to the Soviet copy, called the R-1,[4]: 41  production of which was authorized by Josef Stalin in April 1947.

Remedial improvements along with experimental design upgrades were made in 1949, with a second series of twenty tests starting in September and October.

In one January 1953 incident, thousands of flood-displaced mice disabled many rockets by eating the insulation, requiring "hundreds of cats and repairmen".

This unit was later deployed to Belokovorovich in Ukraine; Šiauliai in Lithuania; Dzhambul, Kazakhstan, Ordzhonikidze, Armenia, the Far East, and the Primorsk area.

[9][3]: 78  Though the R-1 was essentially useless as a weapon against NATO, against which it was almost exclusively deployed, it was, nevertheless, invaluable in laying the foundation of the Soviet rocket industry.