What characteristic defines the venerable Soyuz rocket family inherited from Soviet-era designs?

It is entirely expendable, with every stage lost after one flight

The Soyuz rocket family has historically served as the primary launch vehicle for Russian space access, utilized for missions ranging from crewed transport to the ISS to deploying satellites. A defining feature of this established architecture, much like early American rockets, is its expendability. This means that upon completion of its mission phase, every component, including the first and second stages, is jettisoned and lost, requiring entirely new hardware for every subsequent launch. This contrasts directly with the modern industry trend focused on cost savings through recovery and reuse. The philosophy behind the Soyuz prioritized operational certainty and reliability, which was achieved through decades of proven, single-use designs, rather than minimizing cost per launch through recovery systems.