Sharashka

[citation needed] Some of the scientists and engineers imprisoned in sharashkas were released during and after World War II (1939–1945) to continue independent careers; some became world-renowned.

On May 15, 1930, the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy and OGPU issued a secret circulaire "Об использовании на производстве специалистов, осужденных за вредительство" ("On the use in production of specialists convicted of wrecking").

In 1930 Leonid Ramzin and other engineers sentenced in the Industrial Party Trial were formed into a special design bureau under the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU), which was then the Soviet secret police.

In 1939, the unit was renamed the Special Technical Bureau at the NKVD USSR (Особое техническое бюро НКВД СССР) and placed under the control of General Valentin Kravchenko [ru], under Beria's immediate supervision.

001020 dated November 9, 1949 decreed installation of "Special technical and design bureaus" for a wide variety of civilian research and development, particularly in the "remote areas of the Union".