What if the Russia never sold Alaska?

Would it have been taken over by the British or Americans through force of arms? How would it have changed the cold war?

Perhaps the USSR would place hundreds of thousands of warsaw pact troops in Alaska, as a deterrent. Though i feel poor road conditions would make such an invasion very difficult. putting ICBMs on Alaska would make things very precarious for the United States.
 
Would it have been taken over by the British or Americans through force of arms? How would it have changed the cold war?

Perhaps the USSR would place hundreds of thousands of warsaw pact troops in Alaska, as a deterrent. Though i feel poor road conditions would make such an invasion very difficult. putting ICBMs on Alaska would make things very precarious for the United States.

Well, if the US really wanted to push for it, it could have easily made Alaska the cost of Lend-Lease. The Soviets were hardly in a great position to negotiate in October 1941 when LL was extended to them and a look at a map tells you all you need to know about why the US would want it in prosecuting a possible war in the Pacific.
 
My take is neither the US nor Brits would tolerate Bolshiviks in North America post 1918. Alaska could have become a breakaway White Russian nation protected and propped up by the anti communists of Britain and the US.
 
I imagine Stalin building a rail causeway across the Bering Straits in the 1930's: they're only 40 m deep, just keep dumping gravel. Now it's the Transcontinental Railway; suck it, Capitalists! The IJN regularly blows up trains during the war, but the causeway itself stays intact.

(Nobody realizes until the 1980s that blocking the Straits has destabilized the Atlantic Conveyor, and that an ice age is imminent. )
 
I think we've had threads on this in the past. Alaska essentially becomes Russia's version of Taiwan more or less.

The one thing is that it would be a natural place for the US to intervene during the Allied Intervention in Russia's civil war.
 
I think we've had threads on this in the past. Alaska essentially becomes Russia's version of Taiwan more or less

Yeah, we've discussed the possibility of the Russians keeping Alaska. They can try, but once word of gold gets out the Americans or the British will simply take it and there's very little that the Russians can do about that.
 
death of butterflies much?

Good point: Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra von Hesse, Rasputin, Lenin, Stalin, etc. were all born after 1867. Alexander III will still probably piss off the Russian peasantry and Kropotkin will try to foment revolution, but it's plausible Alexander's alt-successors can transition to a stable republic.
 
My guess is the British take a way harder line in the Alaska boundary dispute. There's really no reason not to and the blatant Russophobia at the time makes it easier said than done.
 
My take is neither the US nor Brits would tolerate Bolshiviks in North America post 1918. Alaska could have become a breakaway White Russian nation protected and propped up by the anti communists of Britain and the US.

Basically Alaska becomes a rump state or the original Taiwan. Probably follows a similar pattern to Taiwan as well and becomes a functional democracy after years of turmoil.

Incidentally, I wonder how that would affect WWII alliances or if the rump state, which I'll call the Republic of Russia, or ROR, has a hard time with Soviet Russia as part of the Allies. They probably will be told that it has to be done, but I picture a fervor against the USSR from the ROR on the level of Cuban expats against Castro.

We may also see a wealthier ROR given the natural resources available there, with a lot of Lend-Lease coming from them.

An unfortunate part of an ROR may or may not be a conflict with the natives. I picture the natives likely being marginalized, though there won't be any active campaigns against them.
 
Top