sharashka

thumb|Tupolev's sharashka TsKB-29 of NKVD in Omsk (1943)

In the Soviet Union, a sharashka (, ; sometimes sharaga, sharazhka) was a type of secret research and development laboratory operating from the 1920s to the 1950s within the Gulag labor camp system, as well as in other facilities under the supervision of the Soviet secret service. Formally various secret R&D facilities were called "special design bureaus" () and similar terms. Etymologically, the word sharashka derives from a Russian slang expression sharashkina kontora (), an ironic, derogatory term to denote a poorly-organized, impromptu, or bluffing organization, which in its turn comes from the criminal argot term sharaga () for a band of thieves, hoodlums, etc.