Sharashka (sometimes Sharaga or Sharazhka, Russian: шара́шка) 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. The phrase research and development (also R and D or R&D) has a special commercial significance apart from its conventional coupling of research and technological development. ... State motto (Russian): Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Translated: Workers of the world, unite!) Capital Moscow Official language None; Russian (de facto) Government Federation of Socialist republics/ Communist state Area  - Total  - % water Largest on the planet 22,402,200 km² Approx. ... Gulag (Russian: ГУЛАГ â–¶ (help· info)) is an acronym for Главное Управление Исправительно—Трудовых Лагерей и колоний, Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii, The Chief Directorate [or Administration] of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies. Anne Applebaum, in her book Gulag: A History, explains: Literally, the word GULAG is an acronym, meaning Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration. ... A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in penal labor. ... Slang is the non-standard or non-dialectal use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ...

The scientists and engineers at a sharashka were prisoners picked from various camps and prisons and assigned to work on scientific and technological problems for the state. Living conditions were usually much better than in an average taiga camp, especially bearing in mind the absence of hard labor. Taiga Taiga (IPA pronunciation: , from the Russian тайга́) is a biome characterized by coniferous forests. ...

The results of the research in sharashkas 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. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as...

History

In 1934 Ramzin and other engineers sentenced in the "Industrial Party Trial" were formed into a special design bureau under GPU management. In 1938, Lavrenty Beria proposed to create "Department of Special Design Bureaus at the NKVD USSR" ("Отдел особых конструкторских бюро НКВД СССР"). In 1939 it was renamed into the "Special Technical Bureau at the NKVD USSR" ("Особое техническое бюро НКВД СССР"). In 1941 it received a secret name, the "4th Special Department of the NKVD USSR" ("4-й спецотдел НКВД СССР"), existed until 1953. Since 1939 the department was headed by general Valentin Kravchenko under Beria's immediate supervision. 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Industrial Party Trial (November 25–December 7, 1930) (Russian: , Trial of the Prompartiya) was a show trial in which several Soviet scientists and economists were accused and convicted of plotting a coup against the government of the Soviet Union. ... Soviet poster of the 1920s: The GPU strikes on the head the counter-revolutionary saboteur State Political Directorate was the secret police of the RSFSR and USSR until 1934. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Lavrenty Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (Georgian: ლავრენტი ბერია; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович Берия; (29 March 1899 - 23 December 1953), Soviet politician and police chief. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... General is a high military rank, used by nearly every country in the world. ...

In 1949, the scope of sharaskas significantly increased. Previously the work done there was of military and defense character. The MVD Order No 001020 dated November 9, 1949 decreed installation of "Special technical and design bureaus" for a wide variety of "civilian" research and development, in particular in the "remote areas of the Union". Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov salute a military parade in Red Square above the message Long Live the Worker-Peasant Red Army—Loyal Sentinel of the Soviet Borders! The military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. ... November 9 is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 52 days remaining. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... The phrase research and development (also R and D or R&D) has a special commercial significance apart from its conventional coupling of research and technological development. ... State motto (Russian): Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Translated: Workers of the world, unite!) Capital Moscow Official language None; Russian (de facto) Government Federation of Socialist republics/ Communist state Area  - Total  - % water Largest on the planet 22,402,200 km² Approx. ...

Notable sharashka inmates

• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a writer. His novel The First Circle is a vivid account of life in sharashka Mavrino.
• Lev Kopelev, a writer, another inmate of Mavrino (a prototype for Rubin from The First Circle)
• Sergey Korolev, the chief of Soviet rocket space program.
• Valentin Glushko, the chief rocket engine designer. (His biography at MN)
• Andrei Tupolev, the chief designer of the aircraft families Tu and ANT.
• Vladimir Petlyakov, the chief designer of the aircraft families Pe and VI (The Petlyakov aircrafts).
• Vladimir Myasishchev, an aircraft designer.
• Leonid Kerber, an aircraft designer.
• Yuri Kondratyuk, a pioneer of astronautics and spaceflight, the inventor of gravitational slingshot.
• Georgy Langemak, a co-inventor (with Korolev) of the Katyusha rocket launcher.
• Helmut Grotrupp, a German rocket scientist from Peenemunde laboratory. (Its head Wernher von Braun was acquired by the US).
• Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, aircraft designer (arrested for a brief period)
• Leon Theremin, a pioneer of electronic music, the inventor of theremin and electronic eavesdropping bug.
• Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky, a geneticist and radiobiologist (His biography at genetics.org).
• Leonid Ramzin, the inventor of straight-flow boiler (The Industrial Party affair, His biography in Russian).

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (Russian: ; born December 11, 1918) is a Russian novelist, dramatist and historian. ... The First Circle (Ð’ круге первом, V kruge pervom) is a novel by Alexander Solzhenitsyn released in 1968, the title of which is based on a quotation from Dante. ... Lev_Kopelev Lev Kopelev (Russian: Лев Копелев, German spelling Lew Kopelew: April 9, 1912 - June 18, 1997) was a Russian author and a dissident. ... Korolev was key in the design and launch of Sputnik 1, the first ever artificial satellite Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (Серге́й Па́влович Королёв) (January 12, 1907 - January 14, 1966) was the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the space race, known only as the chief designer during his lifetime. ... Valentin Petrovich Glushko (born September 2, 1908 in Odessa, Ukraine, died January 10, 1989) was a Russian engineer and rocketry pioneer. ... Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (Russian: ; November 10, 1888 – December 23, 1972) was a pioneering Russian aircraft designer. ... Tupolev (Russian: Туполев) is a Russian aerospace and defence company. ... Vladimir Mikhailovich Petlyakov Vladimir Mikhailovich Petlyakov (Владимир Михайлович Петляков in Russian) (6. ... Petlyakov was a Soviet OKB (design bureau) for military aircraft, centred on designer Vladimir Mikhailovich Petlyakov. ... Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev (Владимир Михайлович Мясищев in Russian) (1902 — 1978) was a Soviet aircraft designer, Major General of Engineering (1944), Hero of Socialist Labor (1957), Doctor of Technical Sciences (1959), Honored Science Worker of the RSFSR (1972). ... Yuri Vasilievich Kondratyuk (June 21, 1897 - 1942) was the pseudonym adopted by Oleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei, a pioneer of astronautics and spaceflight. ... Astronautics is the branch of engineering that deals with machines designed to work outside of Earths atmosphere, whether manned or unmanned. ... Space exploration is the physical exploration of outer-Earth objects and generally anything that involves the technologies, science, and politics regarding space endeavors. ... In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot is the use of the motion of a planet to alter the path and speed of an interplanetary spacecraft. ... Georgy Erikhovich Langemak (July 20, 1898–January 11, 1938) was a Soviet rocket designer of Swedish background. ... Katyusha rockets on ZiS-6 For the song, see Katyusha (song). ... Rocket launcher is a vague term which could mean various things: a mobile launch platform for an ICBM or cruise missile a launcher for multiple smaller missiles, such as Stalins Organ a shoulder-launched missile weapon This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that... Peenemündes position in Germany Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German island of Usedom on the Peene river, on the easternmost part of the German Baltic coast. ... Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ... Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov (Russian: ) (July 8, 1892 - July 30, 1944) was a soviet aircraft designer, known as King of Fighters. He designed the I-15 series of fighters, and the I-16 Ishak Little Donkey figher. ... A young Leon Theremin playing his invention Leon Theremin (born Lev Sergeivitch Termen) (August 15, 1896–November 3, 1993) was the Russian inventor of the Theremin, an electronic musical instrument. ... Léon Theremin playing an early theremin The theremin or thereminvox (originally pronounced but often anglicized as [1]) is one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments. ... A bug is the common name for a covert listening device, usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. ...

Reference

• L.L.Kerber, Von Hardesty, Paul Mitchell, Stalin's Aviation Gulag: Memoir of Andrei Tupolev and the Purge Era (Smithsonian History of Aviation & Spaceflight S.), Smithsonian Institution Press, (hardcover, 1996, 396p.), ISBN 1560986409.

The Smithsonian castle, as seen through the garden gate. ...

External links

• The Kerber's book review in Aerospace Power Journal
• The database of research and design establishments of the Soviet defence industry, 1927–67 by Keith Dexter, The U. of Warwick.
• The translator's note to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle, Harper & Row (1968)