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The creation of space technology in the Soviet Union in 1957 initiated flights of automated interplanetary stations to the Moon, Venus, and Mars and provided an opportunity for scientists and specialists to begin comprehensive studies of these celestial bodies. Outstanding roles were played in organizing the program by Acads. S.P. Korolev, M.V. Keldysh, A.P. Vinogradov, G.I. Petrov, and R.Z. Sagdeev, among other people. In January 1958, they turned to the Soviet Government with a proposal to carry out work on creating an automated interplanetary station and landing it on the Moon and obtaining photographs of the lunar far side. On December 10, 1959, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers “On Space Research Development” was issued, which was of great importance for performing scientific experiments to study the Moon and the Solar System planets. In the Resolution, among the main areas in which outer space could be studied, work on the creation of an automated scientific station on the Moon (or in its region) for studying the physical properties of the Earth’s satellite and the possible presence of life on it, as well as on the data transmission to the Earth, was  distinguished as being of paramount importance. In the period of 1958–1976 in the Soviet Union, a series of landing and orbital automated interplanetary stations was developed to study the lunar surface and near-lunar space. The self-propelled vehicles Lunokhod 1 and 2 were delivered to the Moon for studying the lunar surface in detail and taking samples of lunar soil.