But would Russia have gone communist?
Colonies often have acted as escape zones for malcontents, weirdos and visionaries, thereby preserving the conservative Old Order in the old country.
Russia's Jewish population was only 7%, yet Jews were some 40% of the Revolutionary movement...or so I've read. So perhaps Alaska could have become an emigration goal for a lot of the people who would otherwise have stayed in Mother Russia and stirred the pot.
So Alaska might have built a quasi-socialist society (pre-gold discovery), and Russia wouldn't have had a revolution. But after the discovery of gold?
Do Russia and Canada go to war?
Colonies often have acted as escape zones for malcontents, weirdos and visionaries, thereby preserving the conservative Old Order in the old country.
Russia's Jewish population was only 7%, yet Jews were some 40% of the Revolutionary movement...or so I've read. So perhaps Alaska could have become an emigration goal for a lot of the people who would otherwise have stayed in Mother Russia and stirred the pot.
So Alaska might have built a quasi-socialist society (pre-gold discovery), and Russia wouldn't have had a revolution. But after the discovery of gold?
Do Russia and Canada go to war?