
The Sharashka Phenomenon (2011) - happy-go-lucky
http://russianhistoryblog.org/2011/03/the-sharashka-phenomenon/
======
trhway
> the prisoners themselves called sharaga (or sharashka in its diminutive
> form), a word derived from a Soviet-era slang expression meaning a sinister
> organization based on bluff or deceit.

while it somewhat nuanced, wikipedia provides better sense of that word
(specifically the "sinister" above doesn't sound right)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharashka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharashka):

Etymologically, the word sharashka is derived from a Russian slang expression
sharashkina kontora ("Sharashka's office", which in its turn comes from the
criminal argot term sharaga (шарага) for a band of thieves, hoodlums,
etc.[1]), an ironic, derogatory term to denote a poorly organized, impromptu,
or bluffing organization.

~~~
lostconfused
Well that's translation and localization for you. The end result is always
filtered through the personal biases of the translator. Although to some
people evil and criminal might be same thing as well.

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exebook
Once I watched a documentary about US nuclear and space programmes, the way
engineers lived and worked there in forties cannot be directly compared to
sharashkas but the military and the government still limited the engineers
(especially germans and jews) in many ways.

~~~
golergka
I still don't think that it even closely compares to soviet antisemitism.
Don't know about the Germans, but I don't they were treated better.

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pfortuny
Read Soljenitsin’s (spelling?) ‘The first circle’ to get a good idea of
sharaskas.

~~~
JamesCoyne
There is a recent (2009) edition of the same book titled _In the First Circle_
which includes chapters which were removed for the first edition ( _The First
Circle_ , published 1968). Anyone interested in the title should also consider
listening to the two EconTalk podcast episodes relating to the book.

[http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-solzhenitsyn-the-
so...](http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-solzhenitsyn-the-soviet-union-
and-in-the-first-circle/)

[http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-characters-plot-
and...](http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-characters-plot-and-themes-
of-in-the-first-circle/)

Also, _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ is a much shorter, more easily
digested, novel by Solzhenitsyn.

~~~
alexval
I'm in the middle of _In_the_first_circle_ right now and really enjoying it. I
also got turned on to it from econ talk. Highly recommend reading this book!

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rossdavidh
It appears to me that a rigidly controlled organization, like the Sharashka
seems to have been, is actually a pretty effective way to reach a well-defined
objective. For example, reverse engineering something, or "make us a thing
like those people over there have". The reason the Soviet Union and China
(when it was actually communist) could do well at catch-up, but not as well
when it was time to move into the lead, was that it is not a good system for
researching or engineering new things, because in that case you need to try a
lot of different things and see what works.

~~~
srtjstjsj
The Soviets pioneered space travel.

The Soviets dominated mathematical research; the West only caught up when the
government collapsed and the Soviet mathematicians emigrated to the West.

[https://www.nber.org/papers/w17800](https://www.nber.org/papers/w17800)

~~~
Fins
It would be news to von Ardenne et al to hear that they were Soviet, and their
input to Soviets' "pioneering" space travel is at least as important as von
Braun's to American space program.

(edit: spelling)

~~~
avmich
Von Braun not only succeeded in getting German researchers to USA, but headed
a major space program when the need arose. Participation of German rocket
specialists in Soviet space projects was more modest - first, the level of
expertise wasn't quite the same as in von Braun's team, then they didn't
really collaborate with Soviets as information was going only in one
direction. At some point Korolev felt that Germans became less useful than
their absence - given that Germans didn't have the feedback from their
proposals, how it affects the work of Korolev's team. Then the German group's
work was done.

So, I don't think von Ardenne - who worked on nuclear projects, not rocketry -
or other German participation is as big as what von Braun's team has achieved.

~~~
Fins
Don't forget that while Americans got von Braun and his brains, Soviets got
not only von Ardenne (who was quite bright anyway) but also everything from
rocket (and other) factories) that wasn't nailed to the floor. Whatever was
nailes has been moved together with floors.

By all indications, von Ardenne worked on quite a few projects, and it is
quite interesting that the Soviet Moon project that ran when Germans were
allowed to go home, ended in nothing much more than a few spectacular
explosions.

~~~
avmich
No, Soviet Moon project had a list of successes and firsts and I would
estimate was about 80% complete when it was closed. You don't launch a 100+
meter high rocket four times in 1970s, with the fourth time up until to thrust
terminating sequence of the first stage, and call it a few spectacular
explosions. The list of spinoffs is too numerous to list - Block D derivatives
still fly, NK-33s still fly, Proton... Soyuz spacecraft... and it would be
hard for one person with level of distrust which Germans had in post-war USSR
to affect such a program to a scale of singular importance. Von Ardenne left
USSR for East Germany in 1954 when works on - hugely successful - R-7 didn't
even start, and Soviet Moon project was closed in 1974 - there definitely was
some time to move development ahead.

~~~
Fins
There certainly was enough time, but they never made it to the moon. These
days, though, there is a nice cottage industry of "moon landing was a hoax"
experts, with one of main arguments being "hey, even we couldn't make it".

~~~
avmich
No, the time was rather short. Americans made it by 1969 with almost no time
to spare, and they arguably had more both time (USSR started working on the
moonshot some years later) and resources (the same team which worked on N-1
also worked on strategic missiles). That's not to mention the whole point of
JFK plan - to raise the bar high enough so USSR would be unlikely to get to
the finish line first. JFK's advisers calculated time right.

The point where we started was that Soviets pioneered the space travel and
remained - up no now - comparatively quite good at it. I'd attribute that both
to good decisions made at the foundation of the industry - and to lack of
commitment to space advancements on the West especially after Moon race and
end of Cold War in general.

~~~
Fins
I completely agree with the latter point, but while Americans have no problem
admitting that von Braun was instrumental to the US space program, Soviets
never even mentioned von Ardenne's name anywhere (just like it has never been
mention that Hugo Schmaisser just happened to be a war trophy at the factory
where Kalashnikov worked).

Of couirse it's not like SOviet space rocketry ewxisted in a vacuum,
completely separate from ballistic missiles either. Gagarin's rocket basically
was one of the early ICBMs. Once they realized that making copies of B-29 will
only get them so far, they threw all the effort into rockets instead. Space
program was a side-effect.

~~~
avmich
It was not a secret in USSR that Germans participated in early post-war
rocketry works. Boris Chertok - in post-Soviet memoirs - describes works of
team of Herman Grottrup. I'm not sure von Ardenne had that much influence on
space-related technologies. Soviets rather have hidden their own projects,
trying to paint too rosy a picture of a string of successes.

Orbit-capable rockets were for a long time being developed for military goals,
it was only governments which can afford them and governments had their own
justifications. In USA, for example, a lot of military rocket technologies
found their way into civilian NASA programs.

~~~
Fins
In post-Soviet memoirs, indeed. Of course Chertok would know who worked there.
The general populace only heard rumours that possibly Guderian was teaching in
a military academy and was convinced that of course Tu-4, Elbrus, the Bomb,
rockets, AK-47 and all that were purely homegrown inventions.

At least after Stalin's death they stopped claiming that pretty much
everything has been invented or discovered by Russians (with an occasional
Ukrainian or Uzbek thrown in for good measure).

------
dsabanin
I’ve been thinking about this a lot and came to a conclusion that because of
the fact that in communist/socialist society of Soviet Union money couldn’t
buy you things you wanted, government really struggled to motivate people.

That’s why they resorted to intimidations, threats and physical abuse to force
people to perform, as soon as propaganda couldn’t bring the needed motivation
anymore.

In the west a lot of people work hard because they anticipate some big reward
in the end. In Soviet Union, even celebrities lived like peasants, only party
leaders had more than others.

~~~
KozmoNau7
In the USSR, money could buy you anything, provided you knew the right people.

~~~
dsabanin
Well to me that means that knowing the right people got you stuff, not money.

