Russian Lawmakers Extend Draftees’ Terms by 6 Months : Military: Bill is railroaded through lower house. Move reflects concern at mass desertions because of Chechnya war.

Russia’s lower house of Parliament railroaded through a six-month extension of compulsory military service Friday in an effort to bolster the country’s waning military strength.

A proposed law drafted by the federal army and submitted by ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky was given its required three readings in less than an hour, and no written text was distributed to the Duma deputies before they approved it, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Peace activists denounced the move as unconstitutional and vowed to expose those politicians who signed away the fate of hundreds of thousands of conscripts in a closed session without warning or public discussion.

The swift passage by the normally fractious 450-member Duma reflected growing concern over mass desertions from Russia’s army, spurred by the government’s brutal, protracted battle against separatist rebels in the southern republic of Chechnya.

The action came after warnings from the army hierarchy that the current 18-month term for conscripts is too short to adequately train soldiers.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mikhail P. Kolesnikov read the bill three times to the deputies in a closed session, Itar-Tass reported.

With virtually no debate, the deputies present voted 245-29 with 19 abstentions to extend the service term to two years. The term had been cut from two years to 18 months at the end of the 1980s.

The pro-democracy Russia’s Choice faction in Parliament voted against the action. Party leader Yegor T. Gaidar issued a statement calling the service extension a sign of “growing militarization of the country” and warning that it would lead to further increases in military spending that Russia cannot afford.

Soldiers whose terms would be extended reacted with alarm.

“This cannot be true. Are they crazy?” asked one irate recruit named Sasha, on leave in Moscow from his unit in the southern city of Kursk. “The guys are counting the days left in their mobilization. Now I feel like I’ve been mugged.”

Soldiers’ Mothers, an anti-war group that lobbies against the Russian military involvement in Chechnya, intends to obtain and publish the Duma’s roll-call vote, spokeswoman Valentina D. Melnikova said. She said such publicity would poison the political fortunes of supporters of the bill who plan to run in December parliamentary elections.

At a Defense Ministry news conference earlier in the day, the head of the military personnel directorate complained of manpower shortages in the armed forces.

Col. Gen. Yevgeny Vysotsky said the army plans to call 12,000 reserve officers to active duty this year to fill vacant posts in the officer corps. He said the shortage of conscripts is even more acute.

Vysotsky disclosed that 567 officers had refused to serve in the offensive against Chechnya. The army’s four-month-long campaign to quash the secessionists is estimated to have killed more than 20,000 civilians, and the Russian army has reported at least 1,300 deaths in its ranks.

The bill extending the service term needs approval by the upper house, the Federation Council and the signature of vacationing President Boris N. Yeltsin. It is expected to clear those hurdles.

Zhirinovsky, who plans to challenge Yeltsin in presidential elections set for June, 1996, has promised to restore Russia’s superpower status if elected. This has pressured Yeltsin to make concessions to the security services and the army.