In “2010: The Year We Make Contact,” the Soviet spaceship is the Leonov.
The Leonov carries a joint Soviet-American mission to Jupiter, sent to investigate the failed Discovery One expedition from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The ship reaches Jupiter before the American Discovery Two and becomes the main setting for much of the film.
The name honors Alexei Leonov, the Soviet cosmonaut who became the first person to conduct a spacewalk in 1965. Arthur C. Clarke also used the name in his 1982 novel 2010: Odyssey Two, on which the film is based. The film changes some character details from the novel, including the surname of the Leonov’s captain.
A common mix-up is Discovery, the American spacecraft from the first film, or Discovery Two, the later American mission. Prometheus and Hermes are not the Soviet vessel in this story.