Sharashka

Sharashka (sometimes Sharaga or Sharazhka, Russian: ????????) was an informal name for secret research and development laboratories in the Soviet Gulag labor camp system. Etymologically, the word sharashka is derived from a Russian slang expression sharashkina kontora ("Sharashka's office"), an ironic, derogative term to denote a poorly organized, impromptu, or bluffing organization.

Related Topics:
Russian - Soviet - Gulag - Labor camp - Slang

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The scientists and engineers at a sharashka were prisoners picked from other camps and given relatively better conditions in exchange for their slave-like work on scientific and technological problems for the state. The results of this research were usually published under the names of prominent Soviet scientists without credit given to the real authors, whose names frequently have been forgotten. Some sharashka inmates, brilliant scientists and engineers released during and after World War II, continued independent careers and became world-famous.

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