Editing Sharashka (section)

== History ==

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 (Soviet Union)|wrecking]]"). It ordered the use of "engineers-wreckers" to "eliminate the consequences of wrecking" and to provide them with the necessary literature, materials and devices for this.<ref>{{ill|Lev Lurye|ru|Лурье, Лев Яковлевич}}, Leonid Malyarov, ''Лаврентий Берия. Кровавый прагматик'', 2015, {{isbn|5977507534}}, p.24</ref><ref>[http://www.ihst.ru/projects/sohist/repress/bel99rg.htm ЛАГЕРНАЯ СИСТЕМА И ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ РЕПРЕССИИ (1918–1953), Л.П.Беляков]</ref> It also said that "the use of the wreckers must be organized in such a way that their work was carried out on the premises of the organs of OGPU."

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]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

In July 1931, the OGPU seized control of the {{ill|Intercession Convent|lt=Intercession Convent|ru|Покровский монастырь (Суздаль)}} in [[Suzdal]] and the following year created a special prison laboratory (known as the Bureau of Special Purpose or ''BON'') where around nineteen leading plague and [[Tularemia|tularaemia]] specialists were forced to work on the development of biological weapons. Colonel Mikhail Mikhailovich Faibich, a specialist in [[typhus]], was the first director of ''BON''. The laboratory was in operation until 1936, when the scientists were transferred to a Red Army microbiology facility on [[Gorodomlya Island]] on [[Lake Seliger]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Rimmington|first=Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zfhyDwAAQBAJ&q=rimmington+stalin|title=Stalin's Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare|date=2018-11-15|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-092885-8|language=en}}</ref>

In 1938, [[Lavrenty Beria]], a senior [[NKVD]] official, created the Department of Special Design Bureaus at the NKVD USSR (Отдел особых конструкторских бюро НКВД СССР). 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 {{ill|Valentin Kravchenko|ru|Кравченко, Валентин Александрович}}, under [[Lavrentiy Beria|Beria's]] immediate supervision. In 1941 it received a secret name, the 4th Special Department of the NKVD USSR (4-й спецотдел НКВД СССР).

In 1949, the scope of the ''sharashkas'' significantly increased. Previously the work done there was of [[Military history of the Soviet Union|military and defense]] character. The MVD Order No. 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 [[Soviet Union|Union]]".<ref>[http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/DOKUMENT/USSR/491109.htm "Приказ МВД СССР об организации "шарашек"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722073830/http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/DOKUMENT/USSR/491109.htm |date=2014-07-22 }}, a [[Memorial (society)|Memorial]] webpage (retrieved January 2, 2014)</ref>

The 4th Special Department was disbanded in 1953.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}