Payment of wages to Soviet soldiers

[Peter]

Please can anybody tell me if soldiers of the Soviet forces received regular pay/wages or was it months/years behind ?

How much were ordinary soldiers paid ?

Did the Soviet system pay them into bank accounts or was it in cash ?

Were ordinary Russian people allowed to have bank accounts in the late 1930's and wartime years ?
or were accounts only for people of influence.

In "Everyday Stalinism" Sheila Fitzpatrick suggests that there were 11 million wage & salary earners in the workforce in the late 1920's and that number tripled within a decade, yet I have read virtually nothing on how the factory workers, soldiers, civil servants, police organizations, were paid.

thank you

[Art]

An earlier thread:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... lit=salary

Please can anybody tell me if soldiers of the Soviet forces received regular pay/wages or was it months/years behind ?
How much were ordinary soldiers paid ?

Enlisted men on regular service were paid wages both in peace and wartime. The size was symbolic and could only cover tea or cigarettes. Naturally wages of officers were more competitive. To quote an example the following wages for medium machinegun units were approved on 11 May 1942:
Officers:
company commanders and political officers - 800 rubles per month
company executive officer - 750 rubles
platoon commander - 700
Enlisted:
company sergeant major - 65
assistant platoon commander - 45
section commander - 35
machine gunners - from 30 to 17 rubles
http://www.soldat.ru/doc/gko/scans/1726-01-1.jpg
In front-line conditions there was virtually no turnover of money and cash was of no use. Typically officers transferred their wages to families, enlisted - bought state bonds or donated wages to the state. Outside the operational army officers were not supplied with free rations and were supposed to pay for their meal.

Were ordinary Russian people allowed to have bank accounts in the late 1930's and wartime years ?

Yep:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberkassa
As I understand wages were paid in cash, though I can be wrong here. Practically all transactions were in cash, bank checks were unknown. The army had field section of the State Bank (in divisions or higher level) trough which wages were paid. I suppose wages were in cash and on a monthly basis, yet I'm not completely sure again. Don't know about possibility of transferring money to bank account in field conditions, probably yes.

[Peter]

Thanks Art, that is excellent.

How would a soldier with a wife and children get his wages transferred home to them ?

[Art]

The relevant military unit filled a special document called "denezhniy attestat" or simply "attestat" which specified a monthly payment and a person to receive it. Looked like that:

Money were transferred via a local military office.
Regarding bank accounts: after some search it appears that accounts could be opened by soldiers in the field bank sections. Deposits were inherited by relatives. There was some clamor a couple of years ago regarding considerable sums that remained on wartime accounts and were not claimed by relatives thus far. Example:
http://sergey-mazanov.livejournal.com/362251.html
The article says in particular that 65% of wages in 1943 were payed to bank accounts (cashless).

[Peter]

thanks Art, that is excellent information, I had really struggled to learn this !