"Fine. For sharing everything you know, I certainly won't treat you poorly, brother. I happen to know a restaurant in Saint Petersburg—the food there is quite good. Let's go today. As for the other two meals, we'll get together again next time we come to Saint Petersburg." Maxim readily agreed to the arrangement.
After finishing their work, the two men left the docks for a meal, while the Tsarist Russian immigrants aboard the ship waited anxiously for their unknown fate.
As black smoke billowed from the steam funnels, the ship departed the docks of Saint Petersburg. The immigration instructors had already come aboard in advance; this could be called special treatment for Tsarist Russian immigrants.
"From today onward, you are no longer Slavs. Forget your religion and your ethnicity. I assume you all know that your own lords sold you as merchandise.
"So from today onward, you must forget everything about Russia. Otherwise, you will have no good days waiting for you in the colony. Only by becoming one of us can you receive fair treatment." Akhtman lectured loudly.
Akhtman was himself a Tsarist Russian, but he was one of the so-called Volga Germans—Germans whose ancestors had moved to Tsarist Russia during Catherine's era.
By hiring these Germans living in Tsarist Russia, the Hohenzollern Conglomerate could save itself the trouble of finding translators.
These Germans living in Tsarist Russia had been drawn there by Russian policies. They had retained their own faith and culture, so many of them could communicate in two languages.
They had all benefited from Empress Catherine. In Catherine's eyes, German peasants were more capable of enduring hardship and labor than Russians, and far better organized. Thus, by offering generous terms, Catherine called upon Germans to move with their entire families to Tsarist Russia and cultivate its