In fact, the whole existence of the Soviet Union and everything that was done inside it was merely a propaganda stunt stretched into 67 years, that had no other purpose except showing the greatness of the Soviet Union as an actual country (while in reality, of course, it was but a humongous film set, with a propagandistic theatre play being performed on it).
Sputnik was quite real, though.
As were lots of other things. For example the industrialisation of a big country that was in poor rural state before, while being blocked by the west.
Not everyone in the sowjets was forced to be there. Idealism is a strong driving force, otherwise the sowjet empire would not have sustained itself for so long on propaganda alone.
Man, that was a fun paragraph to write.