“Let me ask you this,” said Scharanov after a pause, “Once Russia, with the work of your people, begins exploiting resources, once it begins mining iron and coal and uranium, drilling oil and natural gas, lumbering millions of square kilometers of timber, and building roads to get to these resources and railroads to get them to market, once we – and you – have built factories and offices and schools and roads and cities for the workers and their families to live and prosper as this work is performed – and it is many years of work, have no doubt – once we have begun that, begun work that will occupy millions of workers for decades, how will we send you home? Who will fill up these cities, factories, schools?
“We have no children to take your jobs. Everyone in Russia – and in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, by the way - who can work these jobs in the twenty years ahead already has been born. You can work these jobs now. You can provide for your families now. You can provide for your futures now. Our futures now. And together, our nations can move forward.” He paused to take a drink from his glass. “We, too, you of course realize, are a European nation. We, too, want to prosper – and to survive.
“Or individually we can stagnate or move backward.” Scharanov set the glass down and folded his arms before him on the table. “None of our countries can exist as we are now… for very much longer. I think we all understand this, do we not?”
Rudniski listened attentively, as did the others. He thought a moment, not yet convinced but understanding the logic. Still, the Russians were age-old enemies of his people. He had to be sure.
“Yes. We can do this,” Rudniski said, nodding.” The question on the table now is this: Will we do this, or will you find a way to control us?” He had no reason to trust Russia or any Russians. But the world seemed to have arrived at a place in which it might make more sense to trust former conquerors than their current “friends”’ in the Mediterranean. At least if they wanted a prosperous - or even a non-bankrupt – future.
“Let me ask you this,” replied Scharanov. “Has there ever been a nation in which occupied workers - the fear you seem to have – have been as productive as free workers?”
The men shook their heads.
Scharanov continued. “Has there ever been a nation of occupied workers – slaves, if you want to call them-”
“-Like East Germany or our nations when we were satellites of the USSR, you mean?” interrupted the Czech Minister gruffly.
“Yes, that is what I mean,” replied Scharanov calmly. “Did you not notice how badly we all fared – your workers as well as ours?”
“Of course,” replied the Czech in irritation.
“And that the USSR wound up destroying itself?”
“Yes.”
“Why would Russia want to do that again? The Western wars for territory and dominance are over. The wars for ideology are over. Socialism failed us – and it is failing you.”
Scharanov paused, letting that sink in for a moment, and then continued. “You may have noticed that Russia has become capitalist and our free market is expanding and our standard of living rising. We cannot keep that up without more jobs – many more jobs. China, too, is capitalist now. They, too, need many more jobs. Making lives better for our citizens is our job now – all of our jobs – yours and ours. Or our people will overthrow us. All of us.
“We can move forward together – or we will not move forward,” Scharanov continued after a moment. “We will work together – or not. Russia has enormous natural resources. You have many hard workers in need of jobs. Together, we can exploit these resources, supply our nations with energy, minerals, steel, timber, transportation, housing, and progress – or not. It is up to you. We - together - have the workers needed to exploit these resources and manufacture and produce goods and services to grow. Alone, none of us have both the resources and the workers to exploit them.”
He looked around again at the men. One of them nodded. The others sat silently but seemed not to disagree.
“You say the children who will take our jobs – grow into them – whatever – already have been born, yes?” Rudniski asked.
“Yes.”
“Then what? We – all our nations, yours, too – have been having fewer and fewer children for 60 years. We all are dying. This is why we are talking – none of us have the workers we need to grow. All of us will grow or die. There is no third way. So we take this opportunity, we employ tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. Then what? In twenty years when we are dead and our few children are our age and they, too, have no children… what happens then?”
The others all looked to Scharanov for his answer. He looked back at each in turn.
“What do we do then?” Rudniski repeated, almost angrily. He, and the others, knew that the decisions of their countrymen – and of they, themselves – had resulted in this demographic catastrophe. And they neither liked it nor had any idea what to do about it.
Scharanov looked at the men for a long moment and then replied. “Here is our offer: We will pay one million male workers from your three nations US$100,000 annually for five years. Guaranteed. We will provide housing and schools; good housing and good schools. In fact, your workers will build them – and they will build the cities in which they are located. We also want you to bring your best teachers for the schools you will build and that your children will attend. You will build these houses, these schools, these cities, and the roads to the resources these workers will mine and harvest.
“We will pay each worker with a wife an annual US$40,000 for her to remain at home and raise her children. We will pay US$10,000 for each baby – up to four per family - born in marriage to each couple, and continue to pay US$5,000 annually for each child that lives, remains in school and gets good grades, and whose parents remain married to each other, until that child graduates high school. We will pay for the university of their choice – as long as the course of study is useful.”
Scharanov paused and then continued. “We are aware,” he said looking around the room, “that we – all of us - have pretended for too long that we could have a future without having children. We cannot. Those who want to work, who want to prosper, who want to have a family and see their work and culture and prosperity continue – come, work.
“That is the deal. Take it or leave it. But decide. We need one million workers from your countries. Now. This year. You have that many workers not currently working and costing your treasuries welfare money. We need workers. We want families. We want a future.” He paused and looked individually at each of the men. “Do you?”
The men sat, thinking, digesting what they had just been told.
“Where will you get this money?” Dieter finally asked, irritated that Russia was offering something for which he knew Russia could not pay. “Your accounts do not support these outlays and one million workers cannot possibly extract and sell enough resources in the first year to pay these wages. By my calculations, that is nearly a trillion dollars you say you will spend in the first five years, but it will be years until these resources and goods can begin to provide the revenue necessary to pay our workers.”
The Russian looked at him for a long moment, and then nodded. He stood abruptly and walked over to a global airline route map hung as decoration and advertising on the wall of the conference room.
He glanced back at the assembled men, looking intently into the eyes of each man there. Some were skeptical. Some looked hopeful, as though there might actually be an answer to the serious – and true – question the German foreign minister had just asked. Where was this money coming from?
President Scharanov pointed at the map of Siberia.
“There are enormous untapped resources in this land. Oil, uranium, coal, natural gas, timber, water. Plenty – and more