Why this word is great
SHARASHKA — [Noun] A secret research and development laboratory within the Soviet gulag system, often staffed by imprisoned scientists and engineers. From Russian шара́шка (šaráška), a diminutive of шара́га (šarága), originally slang for a fraudulent or disorganized enterprise. Unlike "gulag" (which evokes the brute labor of logging or mining) or "think tank" (which suggests free inquiry among elites), a sharashka was a paradox: a prison that demanded innovation, a cage lined with chalkboards. It was the clatter of slide rules in a windowless room, the scent of sweat and pencil lead, the warmth of a single bulb burning late into the Arctic night—a monument to the cruel efficiency of a state that could extract genius even as it broke the men who produced it.