05 June 2004 11:20
Russian newspaper reports on the lucrative job of contract soldier in Chechnya
Contract soldiers with the Russian army in Chechnya are paid 10 times more than their colleagues elsewhere in the
country, a national newspaper reported. The monthly pay packet of one regiment weighs five tonnes. The newspaper
profiled a base in Chechnya that selects contract soldiers, taking only sound men of good character and putting them
through a course that even includes a simulated nuclear bomb explosion. The following is the text of a report by Russian
weekly Argumenty i Fakty on 1 June, with subheadings as published:
The settlement of Kalinovskaya, in the Chechen Republic, was established over 100 years ago as a Cossack stronghold
on the southern frontiers of the Russian Empire. Today it is home to an important Ministry of Defence site where the
soldiers of the 21st century, the contract soldiers, are prepared. Professional soldiers for the 42nd motorized infantry
division are in training here round the clock. There is no other "school" like it in Russia.
The centre stands safely behind checkpoints, minefields and barbed wire. The firing range on which the professional
soldiers (popularly dubbed "kontraktniki") spend 13 days honing their military skills is surrounded by an
enormous orchard of 2,000 trees.
Into the army via the FSB
"Who's not been baptized? Fall out!", an officer's voice booms. With this question and order
begins a service held by Father Ioann from the Uspensko-Nikolskiy church in Mozdok. The training centre does not yet
have its own chaplain but it does have a tiny redbrick church built, incidentally, by the local mason - a Chechen and a
Muslim. It cost the North Caucasus Military District command about R1m. As they enter to be baptized en masse, the
soldiers leave their boots by the door.
The priest places a cross on a thin thread round the neck of each contract soldier. It hangs alongside the "dead
man's ticket" (a metal dogtag with the service number). The soldiers cross themselves clumsily and kiss the
small crucifix.
Selection of contract soldiers for this training centre is fairly stringent. Anyone who has not hit the bottle on the
road to Chechnya and arrives at Kalinovskaya sober and of sound mind soon finds this out for himself. Officers of the
42nd motorized-infantry division choose men for their units like brides choose their grooms. Cliched tough guys in black
bandannas, white judo suits and gloves with no fingers, who are unwilling to take orders from their seniors, are sent
home on the spot. Nor do active-service decorations count for much. "Lowlifes" who have come to "kill
them on the crapper" are not needed here.
If there is the slightest doubt about the background of a new recruit, a request is sent immediately to the Federal
Security Service [FSB] or Interior Ministry. Criminals and others running away from their past are not welcome either.
Anyone who is known to the police or, worse, has a record stands no chance. An important part of the selection procedure
is the compulsory psychological exam, just one test in which contains 156 questions.
The Russian national anthem Tyva-style
We run out for a warm-up with a platoon. Two guys from Tyva start whining about how hard their service is.
"The commander makes us scrabble around in the mud. What does he think we are, pigs? And he doesn't crawl
around in the crap."
"And they make us sing songs and march round the parade ground. But we're not rookies!," another Tyva
guy grumbles. "I learnt the Russian national anthem by heart overnight, even though I hardly know any
Russian."
The road from the sports ground to the training centre passes along the outskirts of the firing range.
"Flash to the left!", the platoon commander bawls. Everyone drops to the ground as if they've been
felled. On the floor we look around in desperation, trying to identify the nuclear threat. Our eyes widen: an enormous
"nuclear mushroom" hangs in the air just a kilometre away. To ensure that its contract soldiers hit the ground
with the required agility, the training centre has invested R42,000 in a simulated nuclear explosion.
The five-tonne pay packet
A contract soldier in Chechnya is paid R15,000 or more [time not specified, presumably monthly], and a battalion
commander who is a career officer and graduate from a military academy gets R22,100. Elsewhere in Russia the pay is from
R5,000 and for an officer R7,000 on average. This 10-fold difference in pay between, say, Pskov and Chechnya has enabled
the North Caucasus Military District to recruit and fully man two motorized-infantry regiments in the 42nd division. The
division will switch totally to professional manning in eighteen months.
Three years' pay for a private, for example, comes to R540,000. In the provinces, even after the cost of feeding
and maintaining a family, there is plenty left over to buy a decent home. In addition to his main "piece of
bread", a contract soldier also receives a "golden hello" of two pay packets upfront in cash and can
claim an interest-free loan equivalent to ten salaries [monthly or annual not specified]. And finally: the net weight of
the monthly pay packet of a single regiment of contract soldiers in Chechnya is five tonnes. How this enormous sum of
money is delivered is a military secret.
This is what they say about contract service during smoke breaks.
Private Kostya P. from Tatarstan: "After my national service I returned to Kazan and got a job as a security
guard in a one-armed bandit hall. At first I just watched people playing the machines. Then I had a go myself, and got
hooked on it. I got R20,000 in debt. So I decided to head for Chechnya and earn some money."
Sergeant Aleksey V. from Kalmykia: "I did my national service with the airborne troops and won a "For
Valour" medal in Chechnya. I used to have a good job at a fish farm, but being Russian in Kalmykia is like having a
millstone round your neck. What counts back there is family ties. The business took a dive, and I had to keep a wife and
five-year-old daughter on R2,000 [presumably a month]. I had to do something, so I decided to sign up as a contract
soldier."
On average the training centre turns out about 200 men a month. They take the places vacated by the conscripts in the
flashpoints.
There is hardly anyone from Moscow or any other major city among the contract soldiers. The biggest suppliers of
manpower are provincial towns in the North Caucasus, Siberian and Far East Military Districts. Most of those arriving at
Kalinovskaya are Dagestanis, Udmurts, Tyvans, Chuvash and Tatars. The average age is from 20 to 25, unmarried. There are
also some 40-year-old "partisans" with three kids and such "mature types", as they say round here,
"with baggage" make up about 15 per cent of the total. There are also relatively few from rural areas. It
would seem that farm workers are in no hurry to leave their ploughs.
[Argumenty i Fakty] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
