I know nothing about war except that horseback archers were OP for a long time. But from my point of view, which is blatantly uneducated when it comes to war, being a Russian soldier seems like a miserable experience. It therefore makes me wonder why 300,000 Russian soldiers are willing to risk it all in Ukraine.^[1] Why don’t they desert? How does the Russian regime get so many people to fight a war when my home government is struggling to convince me to sort my trash? If the Russian regime can convince so many people to have a shit time in Ukraine, I’d argue that the West could convince these people to go live an easier life. The idea is so simple that by now I mostly wonder if my inability to figure out why NATO isn’t already bribing Russian soldiers to desert is a sign that I’m officially off the proverbial rails.

Suppose I’m correct in assuming that even Russian soldiers are somewhat rational and self-concerned actors. In that case, the Russian war apparatus is putting on a masterclass in how to get thousands of people to do something that I assume they don’t particularly feel like doing. Based on some superficial research, I get the impression that the motivational methods of the Russian regime partly are offering a giant carrot to people who have very little. I base this conviction entirely on salary statistics and this NYT opinion piece^[2] that states that the Russian armed forces are recruited from the bottom rung of the societal ladder.

The price of making the Russian army vanish

In 2022, prospective recruits were being offered 2,700 USD^[3] a month – which I assume is an outrageously sweet deal in a country where the median wage is less than 500 USD a month. Where I live, the median salary is roughly 3,000. I don’t think I would invade Ukraine for 15,000 a month but fuck if that isn’t a fat pile of cash. I’ve seen other articles stating much lower numbers, something like 1000, but all make the same point. It is a ton of money for those who sign up compared to what they otherwise could expect. One even states that it is more than a dozen times higher than wage than the average regional wage of where the recruits typically come from.

I don’t think that it matters to my point whether 1000 or 3000 is a more accurate description of what a Russian soldier earns. I think the West could do better either way. I think we cou...

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