Others received roughly the same wage early in the Chechen war that began in the fall of 1999. But after the government cut the number of Russian peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo and sharply trimmed the wages for soldiers in Chechnya, many contract soldiers quit the military, apparently without suffering any major penalty.
The 76th division had little trouble in attracting its first volunteers. Candidates must have served in the military, be physically fit, well-educated and no older than 35. The division only takes men.
The Kremlin has sent out confusing signals about the next stages of the reform. While Putin initially set 2010 as the target date for creating a fully contract force, he has later changed course and indicated that the draft will remain for the foreseeable future.
According to a military reform plan approved by the Cabinet earlier this summer, the army's best, high-readiness units will be switched to full-staffing by volunteers in 2004-2007. Contract soldiers will make up about half of the military by the end of 2007.
The vagueness and slow pace of the military reform has drawn increasing criticism from liberals who accuse the military of deliberately botching the reform.
"The problem is not the lack of money, but the lack of political will on behalf of the leadership that relies on the bureaucracy which isn't interested in the reform," said Alexei Arbatov, a leading member of the liberal Yabloko parliament faction.
There has been no indication the Kremlin will significantly raise contract soldiers' pay -- which would require corresponding wage hikes for officers.
"The current salary doesn't encourage interest in the service," said retired General Andrei Nikolayev, the head of the parliamentary defense affairs committee. He said his committee was preparing a package of bills to accelerate military reform.
Lieutenant Colonel Valery Bashlykov, who is in charge of contract soldiers in the Pskov military recruitment office, said that finding enough candidates is likely to become harder if the volunteer force grows in size. ``It's pretty hard to find people eager to do a lot of work for such small money,'' he said.
Still, Bashlykov said most candidates who joined the 76th division so far came not for money but because they like the extreme conditions and hardships of the military service. "They feel comfortable in that atmosphere," he said.
Officers of the 76th division are generally happy with the new contract soldiers, saying that they are better trained and more motivated than draftees.
"It's better for the state to have one experienced soldier than four untrained ones," said Mikhail Teplinsky, the division's deputy commander, who received the Hero of Russia medal -- one of the nation's highest awards -- for valor in Chechnya.
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