Salyut were a series of space stations built by the Soviet Union in the 1970's-early 1980's in response to the American moon landings and Skylab space station. They were intended to show the USSR had the upper hand over the US in space station technology after the failure of the Soviet moon program.
In total nine Salyut space stations were flown, being replaced by the larger and more sophisticated Mir space station in 1986.