They shifted towards space stations such Salyut program:

The first landing of Apollo astronauts on the lunar surface in July 1969, marked a watershed for both US and Soviet space programs. In the United States, after beating its Soviet rivals to the Moon, the Apollo program suddenly became a "dead end colossus" in the eyes of appropriation committees. After six successful lunar landings, the American expeditions to the Moon were discontinued in 1972.

In the meantime, in the USSR, the political inertia continued dragging forward the ill-fated lunar program, however, leaders of the space industry as well as their patrons in the Kremlin had already started looking elsewhere for future goals.

Within TsKBEM, the primary developer of the Soviet manned spacecraft, a group of top engineers "conspired" to initiate a project of the space station, which could be accomplished quickly and economically.

Source: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spacecraft_manned_salyut.html