AHC: Larger Russian North America

Your challenge is simple-have Russian North America be larger than OTL. In particular, have Russia expand into, and settle, OTL British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. It shouldn't be as hard as it sounds-if Russia gets as far south as I specified, they'll have the Frasier, Willamette, and Columbia river valleys, all of which contain productive agricultural land far more ameanable to European farming techniques than Alaska is. Also something to consider is that both the French-Canadian and Afrikaner ethnic groups weren't descended from that many people-only 1,000-2,000 or so. If we get the Russians to bring that many people to the Pacific Northwest in the 1700's, their won't be any major settlement of the region by anyone else until the 1840's at least. Even if Russia ultimately looses the area, the impact of the Russian language/culture on it would probably be considerable.

Thoughts?
 
Ivangorod Prosperous covers a minor but crucial detail on Russian settlement in the Pacific Northwest, but the Columbia River marks the border between Russian Alaska and Swedish recreated Vinland. Other than that, Russia does need to develop Arctic sailing techniques as early as possible (for the exploration into Alaska and possibly the Arctic Circle itself), as well as to generate a lot of interest in maintaining the Mangazeya colony open.
 
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