Assuming the Russian Empire never sold off Alaska, and it remained part of Russia/RSFSR... what would be the effects of that in WW2/Cold War? I'm thinking supplying the USSR would have been much easier during WW2, only for the North American Northwest to become extremely militarized by the 50s.
WW2/Cold War if Alaska had been part of the USSR?
- Thread starter LNSS
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A POD in the 1860's would certainly butterfly most things in the 20th century?
But let's deploy a metaphorical butterfly net so things stay mostly the same until WW2.
I think it would be impossible for Alaska to be a part of the USSR. If Russia had held onto Alaska, there would really only be two outcomes. One, the British or Americans seize Alaska during the Civil War and keeping it. But I think the second outcome would be the more realistic one. Alaska would become a larger Taiwan, with the White Russians establishing a Russian Republic in exile. The British, Canadians and Americans would work hard to help prop up the White emigre regime in Alaska. This White Russia would be internationally recognised as the legitimate Russian government by much of the world. A major butterfly effect to this would probably be the USSR being a full member of the Axis during WW2.
A soviet Alaska plus McCarthy era suggests a Soviet - USA war [1]. Either that, or the domino theory is proved right and a wave of communism spreads South and Eastwards.
Not very believable but a good starting point for a competent writer.
More realistically, the US has a long history of being very communist-unfriendly, and the reds seemed quite willing to concede territory to the Germans, so it's possible they might sell it to the US in the late 1910s for a suitable sum. Alternately, Alaska becomes a White Russian state - either staying that way and becoming a Taiwan-like state or reforming of its own accord and joining Canada.
[1] well there is the minor inconvenience of the lack of a convenient land border and those pesky commie-sympathising Canadians who won't let the US army across.
Not very believable but a good starting point for a competent writer.
More realistically, the US has a long history of being very communist-unfriendly, and the reds seemed quite willing to concede territory to the Germans, so it's possible they might sell it to the US in the late 1910s for a suitable sum. Alternately, Alaska becomes a White Russian state - either staying that way and becoming a Taiwan-like state or reforming of its own accord and joining Canada.
[1] well there is the minor inconvenience of the lack of a convenient land border and those pesky commie-sympathising Canadians who won't let the US army across.
Maybe local Alaskan communists seize Alaska at the beginning of the Civil War.
I think that Alaska is that what Brits and Americans are going to focus. They don't want see communist foothold on North America.
A out come I've speculated on as well. I'd not try to predict the economic viability or management skill of the Russian regime there. A lot of aging aristocrats and self entitled sons with unrealistic ideas about the world and their future. Maybe a competent regime emerges, maybe not. OTL Alaska was a important way station for Lend Lease to the USSR 1943-1945. Would the Alaskan government cooperate at all ? Or would US made aircraft have to be shipped via the other routes?
I'd also expect the USSR security services to be making every effort to infiltrate agents into this White Russian rump state.
Stalin orders construction of a Bering Strait Causeway, which blocks ocean currents and triggers a shutdown of the Atlantic Conveyor a century later.
Soviets had no difficulties at all infiltrating any White emigre organization they wanted.
As a matter of fact, reunion sentiments will be quite strong in this rump state.
Sold or not, I still expect a big part of its population to be Anglophone miners by 1910 once gold is found (IOTL, the population doubled due to the Nome and Fairbanks rushes). I’m not even sure the post-1917 Alaska could even be called a White rump state in that case—they might just proclaim a Republic of Alaska on American or British-influenced lines and make no pretense of being a continuation after the Kerensky regime falls.
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I see no cause for either the USA or UK to seize Alaska for no reason. 1 the UK didn't want it when it was offered to them IOTL and 2 the US isn't in the business of invading and taking the territory of European power for the lulz. Foreign entanglements and all. Plus there are a bunch of Russians living there. Don't you think they'd protest.
However I think you're right about the White Russians using it as a base of operations though again I think you're jumping the gun about international recognition.
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In MacKinlay Kantor's 1961 alternate history novel If the South Had Won The Civil War, Cuba and Alaska actually switch places in history. Cuba becomes a Confederate state while Alaska is never purchased by the United States and remains part of the Russian Empire.
The United States, the Confederate States and an independent Texas eventually reunite but face a much bigger threat with the Russians in this ATL Alaska, compared to an OTL communist Cuba with Russian missiles, as part of Wikipedia’s synopsis of this novel points out.
Wikipedia said:
I imagine this would alter the dynamics of the cold war radically. Quite a bit of resources spent in central europe IOTL would be relocated to British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington. The Soviet Union would have the capability of striking the US mainland way before ICBM are a thing.
