Sharashka

Sharashka - unique camps in the Soviet Gulag prison camp system. Sharashkas were secret research institutes, where imprisoned scientists were set to develop new technologies and also some basic research. The results of this research were usually published under the names of prominent Soviet scientists and the real authors were forgotten. However, during World War II and in late '50s, several brilliant prison-scientist and engineers have been freed from Gulag and became famous.

A vivid account of life in a Sharashka is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel First Circle[?].