Alaska Is Never Sold And Remains Russian And Ultimately Soviet!

So there's only 49 states and then some. How does the world change under this change? Post USSR break up, how does an Independent Alaska cope and how does the world cope with it. I'm presuming it's economically OK, would we have a president Pallin over it, BTW it's probably the only scenario where a president Sarah Pallin could possibly become an executive head of state anywhere.
 
Presuming this is serious and not merely a political rant, then I think Russian Alaska doesn't last past 1919. Americans (and Canadians I think) intervened in the Russian Civil War as it was; Alaska would be occupied as well. Even if not butterflied away, a Soviet victory would result in either Alaska as a US Territory, Canadian Territory, or exiled Russian Republican territory, similar to Taiwan.

If a Russian Republic, there are interesting butterflies.

Mike Turcotte
 
Presuming this is serious and not merely a political rant, then I think Russian Alaska doesn't last past 1919. Americans (and Canadians I think) intervened in the Russian Civil War as it was; Alaska would be occupied as well. Even if not butterflied away, a Soviet victory would result in either Alaska as a US Territory, Canadian Territory, or exiled Russian Republican territory, similar to Taiwan.

If a Russian Republic, there are interesting butterflies.

Mike Turcotte

Agreed. Personally I'd like to see some kind of Constitutional monarchy heavily influenced by the Westminster system take shape in Alaska under one of the Romanovs.

That would certainly be an interesting place...
 
Agreed. Personally I'd like to see some kind of Constitutional monarchy heavily influenced by the Westminster system take shape in Alaska under one of the Romanovs.

That would certainly be an interesting place...

Tax haven, extreme sports vacations, casinos, hunting, ship registries and brothels. Vegas writ large, with US and Soviet spies having furtive meetings on the 'Anchorage Strip' of Casinos...

Mike Turcotte
 
Tax haven, extreme sports vacations, casinos, hunting, ship registries and brothels. Vegas writ large, with US and Soviet spies having furtive meetings on the 'Anchorage Strip' of Casinos...

Mike Turcotte

Hmm, not bad for an Aljaskaja kraj. :D
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
If Alaska was still Russian, and WW1 and the Russian Civil War are not caught in a butterfly storm, then US or Britain (Canada) would seize Alaska during the Russian Civil War.
 

Dorozhand

Banned
I would be inclined to think that alaska would have become something of a penal colony. A place for the czar to dump political dissidents. Maybe they would have set up a naval base there, with some strategic importance in the Pacific.

Also, If Russia had discovered the Alaskan oil, then the Russo-Japanese war, and the IWW (if it happened at all) would have gone completely different. Imagine if Russia had tapped the oil wealth of Alaska! they may have been able to stand up to the Germans!

A post-IWW surviving Russian Empire would have had enormous butterflies.

But, assuming that didn't happen...
The Russo-Japanese war may have been carried over to Alaska, and this closeness may even have prompted British/American intervention. The Americans may have itched to sieze the territory under the casus belli of the monroe doctrine (that would have changed the conditions for the IWW drastically).

Also, if all those communists and republicans I mentioned before had been sent there, then there may have developed a strong, closely knit community of dissidents. They may (if the IWW had gone roughly the OTL course) have tried to set up their own state in Alaska, or they may have taken ships from the naval base and made their triumphant return to Russia, crossing through Siberia and inciting rebellion.

Then the US or Britain would have siezed Alaska, and if the struggle was prolonged then the Germans may have gotten the upper hand.

After the Russian civil war, the Soviets (and possibly the Germans) would have demanded a return of Russian Alaska. The Soviet Union would have come into conflict with the Germans, and may have allied with a revanchist France (possibly under maurras) in a very different IIWW!

very interesting butterflies.
 
I would be inclined to think that alaska would have become something of a penal colony. A place for the czar to dump political dissidents. Maybe they would have set up a naval base there, with some strategic importance in the Pacific.

Also, If Russia had discovered the Alaskan oil, then the Russo-Japanese war, and the IWW (if it happened at all) would have gone completely different. Imagine if Russia had tapped the oil wealth of Alaska! they may have been able to stand up to the Germans!

A post-IWW surviving Russian Empire would have had enormous butterflies.

But, assuming that didn't happen...
The Russo-Japanese war may have been carried over to Alaska, and this closeness may even have prompted British/American intervention. The Americans may have itched to sieze the territory under the casus belli of the monroe doctrine (that would have changed the conditions for the IWW drastically).

Also, if all those communists and republicans I mentioned before had been sent there, then there may have developed a strong, closely knit community of dissidents. They may (if the IWW had gone roughly the OTL course) have tried to set up their own state in Alaska, or they may have taken ships from the naval base and made their triumphant return to Russia, crossing through Siberia and inciting rebellion.

Then the US or Britain would have siezed Alaska, and if the struggle was prolonged then the Germans may have gotten the upper hand.

After the Russian civil war, the Soviets (and possibly the Germans) would have demanded a return of Russian Alaska. The Soviet Union would have come into conflict with the Germans, and may have allied with a revanchist France (possibly under maurras) in a very different IIWW!

very interesting butterflies.

Interesting ideas...but the main problem is that the oil in Alaska is very hard to get at, even now with modern technology. It's going to be incredibly tough for Russia to develop the region especially given it's position on the periphery of the Empire.

As for the penal colony idea, I think the resources and proximity of Siberia would make that the primary destination for Russian prisoners rather than far off Alaska in TTL. That being said, I do think that in order to hold onto Alaska, the Czars will have to do something to encourage immigration to the Colony.

One thing that has always bothered me about Russian Alaska scenarios is their predilection to skip over the 19th century and go straight to World War I and the immediate aftermath. However the events in the decades that immediately follow the failure of the sale of Russian Alaska to the US (ie. those occurring from 1867-1914) would undoubtedly affect the rest of history and certainly come to define Russian Alaska. For instance, how would the Klondike Gold Rush be different with a Russian Alaska? I've never come across a satisfactory answer to that question....
 
For instance, how would the Klondike Gold Rush be different with a Russian Alaska? I've never come across a satisfactory answer to that question....

For my money, I'd guess that it would be roughly equivalent to what happened to Mexico's territories in the Midwest, especially Texas. More and more foreigners travel there and eventually want to join up with the country of their origin rather than remain under the current authority.

So in Alaska's case, you'd get a bunch of people going there for the gold, then eventually breaking away to form their own republic, before finally becoming a part of America or Canada.

That last bit's the clincher; unlike Texas, which essentially could go only to America, Alaska's settlers would be an American-Canadian mix and the territory could go either way.
 
Russia doesn't need a hard to reach penal colony, it already has all of frozen, marshy Siberia. Which is more than enough.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
So there's only 49 states and then some. How does the world change under this change? Post USSR break up, how does an Independent Alaska cope and how does the world cope with it. I'm presuming it's economically OK, would we have a president Pallin over it, BTW it's probably the only scenario where a president Sarah Pallin could possibly become an executive head of state anywhere.

Butterflies, my friend. Butterflies...
 
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