The Sharashka Phenomenon (2011)
russianhistoryblog.org
russianhistoryblog.org
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.
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.
>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.
The Soviets dominated mathematical research; the West only caught up when the government collapsed and the Soviet mathematicians emigrated to the West.
I haven't read your link yet, but I understand soviet maths developed more-or-less in parallel isolation, with some innovations on both sides - about what you'd expect. Non-isolation would have yielded greater progress.
(edit: spelling)
So, I don't think von Ardenne - who worked on nuclear projects, not rocketry - or other German participation is as big as what von Braun's team has achieved.
By all indications, von Ardenne worked on quite a few projects, and it is quite interesting that the Soviet Moon project that ran when Germans were allowed to go home, ended in nothing much more than a few spectacular explosions.
The point where we started was that Soviets pioneered the space travel and remained - up no now - comparatively quite good at it. I'd attribute that both to good decisions made at the foundation of the industry - and to lack of commitment to space advancements on the West especially after Moon race and end of Cold War in general.
Of couirse it's not like SOviet space rocketry ewxisted in a vacuum, completely separate from ballistic missiles either. Gagarin's rocket basically was one of the early ICBMs. Once they realized that making copies of B-29 will only get them so far, they threw all the effort into rockets instead. Space program was a side-effect.
Orbit-capable rockets were for a long time being developed for military goals, it was only governments which can afford them and governments had their own justifications. In USA, for example, a lot of military rocket technologies found their way into civilian NASA programs.
At least after Stalin's death they stopped claiming that pretty much everything has been invented or discovered by Russians (with an occasional Ukrainian or Uzbek thrown in for good measure).
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskvitch_2140
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_Riva
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAZ-24
There were a few models concurrently of the two popular brands, but they were not great.
Can you imagine John Glenn being presented with some underwear in the White House?
The other problem being, of course, that whether you were given $100K, or a million, you couldn't really go buy a car or a house anyway. And, apparently, underwear or a decent coat either.
As for spending billions on vanity project, the manned flights have reasons other than political. Check here - http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore-space.html .
There certainly are reasons for space exploration. In a country where a year after Gagarin's flight army shot unarmed civilians who were demonstrating asking government to give them some food, it is far harder to justify.
Well, theoretically you can. But you have to be a really high on the ladder.
Brezhnev had several good _imported_ cars. Gagarin had a sport car (gift from French, I believe). Vysotskiy (think of a Soviet Elvis Presley) had a good car.
But other 99.99%... no chance.
Of course, I'm not taking into accounts hundreds of "expropriated" German cars which appeared in USSR after 1945.
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.
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.