Part 1 - The Alaskan Gold Rush of 1867
For most of the 19th century, the Russian Empire had been in decline. An old-fashioned, conservative absolutist monarchy with a vast colonial empire spanning both Europe and Asia, it suffered from political instability, a harsh, repressive government, and a backward and uneducated peasantry.
All true except for the "conservative" part. Reign of Alexander II (a liberal
http://wikiredia.ru/wiki/Экономика_России_при_Александре_II
In addition, Alaska, the Russian Empire's only remaining overseas colony,
If you are talking about 1866, there are still Russian settlements in California.
The "only remaining" does not mean too much because Russia never was too much into the overseas possessions and the territories governed by RAC were the only overseas colonies Russia ever had. But if one considers colonization of the territories close to the Russian border, then Caucasus was just conquered (and there will be further expansions) and Central Asia was in a process of being conquered.
seemed more of a burden than a benefit, as it was difficult to navigate, extremely underpopulated, and constantly under threat of British invasion through Canada (at least, the Russian Imperial government was constantly worrying about British invasion, the Brits actually had no interest in Alaska for the most part). It had many natural resources, but the Russians were largely unaware of the vast reserves of gold, oil, coal, and other resources that lay at their fingertips in Alaska. At least, they were until 1866...
Their primary interest was sea otter and other fur animals and one of the main customers was China, which was reasonably close. However, by the mid-XIX the "production" was on a steady decline and the territory was losing economic sense. Oil, as you understand, was not in anybody list of the serious interests at that time and carrying coal from Alaska to the Russian mainland did not make economic sense.
On July 7th, 1866, Russian colonist Ivan Aleksandrovich Prerovsky* stumbled upon gold in an unnamed creek in the Alaskan wilderness. Little is known of Ivan, but that he lived on an isolated plot of land with a wife and no children. Although he lived far from the capitol of Russian America, Novo Archangelsk, he felt obligated to personally share the news of his discovery with the colonial governor of Russian America, Dmitry Petrovich Maksutov.
News of this discovery quickly spread through Russian America and into Russia, despite a distinct lack of infrastructure and small population. The news reached Saint Petersburg in early 1867, just as the Tsar was beginning to consider selling the territory and making it some other nation's problem. It is unknown whether the empire would have actually sold Alaska, but it has been an interesting, if under-explored, point of speculation by Russians and Americans alike.
The resulting boom caused migration on a previously unseen scale, as Russians of every class and occupation flocked to Alaska to strike it rich in the icy wasteland. Though the trip was hard, and many died, the colonist population of Alaska multiplied dramatically, from a few hundred to more than a hundred thousand, mostly composed of newly-emancipated serfs.
Very interesting except for almost complete absence of a practical sense for Russia. Starting from 1830, there was already a gold rush in Siberia. It started in Tomsk gubernia and then expanded to Eniseisk gubernia and in 1843 in Trans Baikal region. Gold was found in Ural Montians, Altai, etc. In 1861 there were 459 registered gold digging companies employing 30,269 people. 1125 licences for gold extraction had been issued (this does not include the "wild" gold diggers). These areas had been much easier to exploit and supply than Alaska (closer to the settled areas, communication by the rivers and existing roads) and there was, indeed, creation of the supporting infrastructure and growth of population: by 1838 population of Eniseisk gubernia was 102,843 and volume of the food and forage trade grew from 350,000 rubles in 1830 to 5,000,000 in the late 1850 (in 1859 over 32,000,000 kg of bread had been sold to the gold mines of Eniseisk gubernia). Nothing on even remotely similar scale was possible for Alaska so the "mass migration" is out of question. At beast you can expect Russian population growing to a thousand or couple thousands. Perhaps, with the gold being discovered, asking price could go up somewhat.
Even as far as Siberia is involved, the mass migration started only after 1906 with a state program supporting resettlement (free land grants, credits, free transportation, etc.) and construction of the Trans-Siberian railroad .
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