Michel Van said:
That the Lunochod program ended after 1974 with end of Soviet Manned lunar program.
is indication it was a part of it.
Yes it must have happen this way. Tchertok (in "Rockets and People" Vol. 4) and Mishin (in "Soviet Moon Projects") maginalize the Ye-8-program aka Lunokhod but Asif Siddiqi had worked out the real importance of the moon rover project. I cite from his great book "challenge to Apollo" (p. 643):
"The repeated additions and modifications to the N1-L3 plan in 1965-67 also complicated mission design. Even after the ink was dry on a final draft plan for a particular element of the L3 complex, months later, engineers would propose modifications based on new anticipated needs. This not only made it impossible to manufacture flight models of the spacecraft, but also added layer after layer of complexity to the N1-L3 mission. By 1968, the following components were part of the entire program:
- Ye-6LS (two robot probes to map lunar gravitational anomalies)
- Ye8LS (two robot lunar satellites to photograph the lunar surface)
- T1K-T2K (automated and piloted flights of the LOK and Lk in earth orbit)
- L1E (automated test of the Blok D stage in Earth Orbit);
- N1-L1 (two lunar orbital L1 flights as test payloads for early N1 launches)
- Ye-8 (two lunar rovers to serve as transport for cosmonauts);
- N1-L3 (one N1 launch with the the backup LK)
- N1-L3 (one N1 launch with two cosmonauts to land on the moon)"