I wonder if Russia could transplant serfs.
Serfs even in Siberia was not, to say nothing about America.
I wonder if Russia could transplant serfs.
What do you think of the possibility of gold being found in Russian California around 1830 - specifically around the Slavyanka (the Russian River)? You can still find gold there today. A lucky early discovery could motivate the Russian government to colonize and many enterprising Russians to move, not to mention Mexican and American immigrants to the area.
I'd also like to introduce another topic of discussion: if Russia were to manage successful colonies along the Pacific until the mid-to-late 1910's, what would an independent Russian-speaking republic running from Oregon to California call itself? It would likely be "thinner" than OTL California, as the Russian colonists tended to prefer the coastline. They would likely only move inland for gold.
And for Russia's purposes, what other purposes are there?
A settler colony for a society that has cut down on serf freedom of independent movement to almost nil would be ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst.
Well, as others have postulated there is the possible idea of forcibly planting serfs on the land, but like you I tend to view this idea with skepticism.
It dosen't take much trapping to deplete the supply of desirable fur bearing mammals, be they sable, ermine, fox, mink or beaver. Which is why fur trappers were always pressing on and exploring new territory.
Semyon Dezhnev in the 1640s was no exception. He set out from the Kolyma east with a couple of koch vessels that are adapted for arctic conditions in 1648 and managed to round the East Cape of Siberia. ITTL, he finds that cape blocked by ice but finds a passage farther east and continues past the Seward Peninsula of Alaska until he reaches the Kobuk River. There, finding the Yupiak People friendly, rather than hostile as the Chukchi and Koryak are, he and his people winter over and the next year, explore the Kobuk and the nearby Noatak, finding aboundant fur, silver, walrus and narwahl tusks to be traded with the Yupiak and farther up, the Gwi'chin. Finally, Dezhnev,s people in canoes, reach a portage to the Koyakuk River, float down the Koyakuk to the Yukon and realize that this major river leads both deep into interior North America and has an outlet to what must be the Pacific. Dezhnev by this time returns to his ships, sets out once again, this time making it through the Straits and follows the Alaskan Coast to find the Yukon's entrance, which he does, then follows the coast to the Alaskan Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, discovering seal and sea otter pelts for the taking on the way to Kamchatka and finally the outpost of Okhotsk.
This leads to exploration deep into the Alaskan interior, to the upper Porcupine River, which is portaged to the Deh Cho River (Mackenzie) and from there to what is OTL Great Slave Lake, Lake Athabasca, Lake Cochrane, Reindeer Lake, the Churchill River and Hudson's Bay. When word reaches back to the Tsar, he realizes that his Cossacks have managed to circumnavigate the Arctic and to secure that land, he must send one of his few ships to plant outposts on Hudson's Bay before the British or the French do. Which he does. By moving in both directions, east to west and west to east before 1670, Russia is able to secure northernmost North America and expand into the North American Pacific Coast from there.