This is probably just Baronial ASB goofiness, but could there ever have been any chance of a Russian Empire that reached all the way around the world? Say it controlled the OTL Russian Empire at its greatest extent (Finland to Alaska) plus what we now call the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ungava, Labrador, Kalaallit Nunaat, Iceland, Sweden and Norway).
I'll be honest - I know this is one of those that I think is a "neat idea that is utterly unworkable" (right up there with my dream TL with samurai fighting legionaries in the Rockies with World War One technology that I'll almost certainly never write), but, setting the political impossibility of it all (if nothing else, I can't imagine the British sitting still for this), could a state like this have even been managed logistically?
I'll be honest - I know this is one of those that I think is a "neat idea that is utterly unworkable" (right up there with my dream TL with samurai fighting legionaries in the Rockies with World War One technology that I'll almost certainly never write), but, setting the political impossibility of it all (if nothing else, I can't imagine the British sitting still for this), could a state like this have even been managed logistically?