> 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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Soviets dominated mathematical research; the West only caught up when the government collapsed and the Soviet mathematicians emigrated to the West.
>As Sergei Korolev was said to have joked, the guards who protected him in his high position as the chief designer of the Soviet space program were probably the same ones who watched over him in the sharashka.
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.
>money couldn’t buy you things you wanted, government really struggled to motivate people.
What money could not buy, your position itself provided. There were queues and there were priorities built in.andit wasn't just party leaders. There was different housing for scientists in fields important for state, for security employees and sometime for army officers and there were nice percs for trusted people who were able to visit conferences abroad and buy nice things there. There were people sailing abroad and they brought contraband with them, which they sold on black market.
You could have used your position to ask for retirement and dacha in a nice place on the south if you were in kgb, instead of Frozen Ass Oblast'.
All of that plus a credible threat of violence for perceived dissent worked for a while.
It's somewhere in between working for large corporation and living in a really large prison. You obviously could bend some rules and things you are not supposed to have.
I'm in the middle of Strugatsky brothers' "Probationers" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Apprentice - which paint another picture of motivation than this. Strugatsky brothers are foundational to Soviet sci-fi literature just as Alexander Solzhenitsyn is foundational to Soviet opression literature.
This is directly contradicted by the article - they mention imprisoned scientists and engineers proposing what eventually becomes a sharashka themselves. I think where your logical chain falls apart is the assumption the purpose of the oppression was motivation. The purpose of the oppression, though, was actually just oppression.
Leo Trotsky, for example, wrote that Soviet state should exploit its workers to attain its socialist goals, with hopes that at some point things would go sufficiently well that they will no longer feel exploited. If it never happens, too bad.
Stalin forced him away but he never had any other policy.
Fast forward to 1990, nobody wanted to be a part of Soviet state to lift a finger to keep it whole. And we're talking high ranking officials, army and state security here.
[+] [-] trhway|7 years ago|reply
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:
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|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emayljames|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exebook|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] golergka|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pfortuny|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JamesCoyne|7 years ago|reply
http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-solzhenitsyn-the-so...
http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-characters-plot-and...
Also, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a much shorter, more easily digested, novel by Solzhenitsyn.
[+] [-] rossdavidh|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] srtjstjsj|7 years ago|reply
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
[+] [-] omazurov|7 years ago|reply
>As Sergei Korolev was said to have joked, the guards who protected him in his high position as the chief designer of the Soviet space program were probably the same ones who watched over him in the sharashka.
[+] [-] dsabanin|7 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] Muromec|7 years ago|reply
What money could not buy, your position itself provided. There were queues and there were priorities built in.andit wasn't just party leaders. There was different housing for scientists in fields important for state, for security employees and sometime for army officers and there were nice percs for trusted people who were able to visit conferences abroad and buy nice things there. There were people sailing abroad and they brought contraband with them, which they sold on black market.
You could have used your position to ask for retirement and dacha in a nice place on the south if you were in kgb, instead of Frozen Ass Oblast'.
All of that plus a credible threat of violence for perceived dissent worked for a while.
It's somewhere in between working for large corporation and living in a really large prison. You obviously could bend some rules and things you are not supposed to have.
[+] [-] rdtsc|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] KozmoNau7|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avmich|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvg|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eps|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doombolt|7 years ago|reply
Leo Trotsky, for example, wrote that Soviet state should exploit its workers to attain its socialist goals, with hopes that at some point things would go sufficiently well that they will no longer feel exploited. If it never happens, too bad.
Stalin forced him away but he never had any other policy.
Fast forward to 1990, nobody wanted to be a part of Soviet state to lift a finger to keep it whole. And we're talking high ranking officials, army and state security here.
[+] [-] trevyn|7 years ago|reply