Sign-on bonuses and ‘coffin money’ fund visible economic transformation
A Wall Street Journal video published Tuesday documents wartime payments reshaping the Russian city of Ulan-Ude, where high sign-on bonuses and so-called “coffin money” — payout benefits for fallen soldiers — are fueling new apartments, businesses and car purchases even as graves pile up in the local cemetery.
The piece, produced by contributor Milàn Czerny and coordinating producer Emma Scott for the Journal’s enterprise video team, frames Ulan-Ude as a case study of how “front-line cash” is transforming one of Russia’s poorer regional economies. “New apartments, businesses and cars are popping up across the city,” the Journal reports, “while graves are piling up in the local cemetery.”
The video documents how both flows — recruitment payments and casualty benefits — have circulated through Ulan-Ude’s economy, the Journal writes, even “as cemeteries and war memorials continue to expand.” Ulan-Ude sits among Russia’s poorest regional economies, according to the Journal’s framing.
The reporting captures an economic boom expressed in new construction, expanded businesses and rising car purchases — set against expanding cemeteries and war memorials. The piece documents both sides of the transformation in a single regional capital: cash circulating through local commerce, and the burial grounds growing to absorb the conflict’s losses.
Czerny is an OSINT reporter on the Journal’s video team based in Israel. Scott, the coordinating producer, joined the Journal in 2019 after working for the Times-Picayune and Agence France-Presse. She has previously received a News & Documentary Emmy Award for her investigation into Tesla’s autopilot and a Gerald Loeb Award for visual reporting on the network Russia used to steal Ukrainian grain.
The Journal’s video is accessible to subscribers via its website.