Dr. Yuri Zotov likes his job as surgeon at Vacha's one and only hospital. The problem is the pay.

While the Russian government, under President Vladimir Putin, has improved at settling its debts, it still owes hundreds of millions of dollars in back wages. Workers in schools, hospitals, factories, coal mines and army barracks are accustomed to being paid late, being paid in part or being paid in goods instead of money.

But the latest barter offer dreamed up in Vacha caused a real storm.

Instead of rubles, Vacha's esteemed medical professionals were offered 3 tons of manure for services rendered.

Representatives of the city government said it was never an official offer, merely a suggestion.

But the idea insulted Zotov and his colleagues.

"It was announced at the doctors conference," said Natalya Koyokina, a paramedic who has worked at the hospital for 16 years. "`Please get paid with manure, if you want,' they said. The reaction was one of revolt mixed with laughter.

"What's going on? What are we working for, manure now?"

The thing is, in this agricultural region a few hours drive southwest of Nizhny Novgorod, manure is valuable. Even townspeople have garden plots where they grow potatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables that will help them get through Russia's lean winters.

The fertilizer's value is why Vacha Mayor Alexander Abrosimov seemed so baffled when the medical professionals protested. Seeking some way to cover the December 2000 payroll, still unpaid as of May, Abrosimov came up with the manure idea.

"Everyone is looking for manure," Abrosimov told the Moscow Times. "Maybe the associations are not pleasant, but it's a needed commodity for every resident."

The hospital staffers, however, turned up their noses at the offer. A few workers rejected it out of principle. Others saw it as bad economics.

At 500 rubles, or about $18, a truckload of manure is not a bad payoff for folks who earn 200 to 1,300 rubles a month. But it would cost almost 500 rubles to ship the stuff.

That some folks in Vacha even considered the manure deal--that they actually crunched the numbers on the tonnage and transport--shows how warped the economic system can get in Russia.

During the past several years, workers at Vacha's hospital and schools have been paid in bread, sausages, livestock feed, tools, cutlery, furniture, washing machines and bicycles, among other things.

Compared with other places, the merchandise is not too bad.

All over Russia, workers are being paid in goods rather than cash. On their days off, people can be seen along roadsides, hawking beach towels, vodka and other goods to get money to feed their families.

In some cases, the employers are caught up in a cycle of barter.

In other cases, it is the government that is cash poor but rich in IOUs. Say, for example, a company owes the city 1 million rubles in taxes. It cannot pay, but it can offer the city 1 million rubles in merchandise the city can use to pay its workers.

"Our wallets are full of pay stubs," said Koyokina, who works the ambulance runs during the day and then turns the shift over to her sister for night duty. "One month's salary is paid in eight or nine installments. It was the worst in 1997, when they delayed payments for half a year."

Wage arrears were gravest before Russia's financial crisis of 1998, when Russia was supposedly on the way to building a real economy. Former President Boris Yeltsin often talked about paying salaries, but his government consistently failed to follow through even as it got itself deeper and deeper into debt.

That changed after the ruble crashed in August 1998, when Yeltsin's so-called free market reformers were pushed out of power. Putin has since outlawed barter by government agencies. He has tightened the way money is transferred from federal and regional budgets. He also has tried to make local officials more accountable for the money that passes through their hands.

So far, Putin's team has cut federal wage arrears to 32.8 billion rubles, about 40 percent of what they were in 1998. Still, that debt remains huge: $1.14 billion that Russia owes its state employees.

Even in Vacha, though, things are starting to smell rosier.

A few days after Zotov's complaints were picked up by the national news media, Vacha officials scrambled to explain away the whole affair. They pointed out that no one was pressured to take the manure. They said the whole thing had been blown out of proportion.

After his chat with the Moscow Times, the mayor could not be reached for comment.

"Tell them I'm not here. Tell them I'm not here," the mayor could be heard bellowing in the background when called for an interview.

And at the chief doctor's office at the Vacha hospital, stacks and stacks of 100-ruble notes suddenly materialized.

Hospital staff members were going to receive May's salary in full. They also would get their back wages from December 2000. By month's end, Vacha would be up to date.

"We would rather get our money and then there would be no problems," said Natasha, an X-ray laboratory assistant who was dragging along her bicycle--received as salary--and getting ready to head home. "We could buy the manure ourselves then."