WI: Russian Empire kept Alaska

This is my first post so forgive me if it's not that good. What if the Russian Empire never sold Alaska to the United States in 1868. What effect on history do you think it would have? If they kept in into the Cold War would it have had any effect on it? Could we have an Alaskan Missile Crisis, maybe? What if they sold it to another country? Could that have any effect on it?
 
Well, if the butterflies are kept low and the Russian Empire falls into revolution, you might see Canadian intervention in Alaska. By the turn of the 19th century, the Alaskan panhandle was quite coveted by Canada and I wouldn't be surprised to see Canada move in to keep the Communists out.

That or you could have the oft used Imperial Russia in exile.

The long and short of it is in my opinion is that neither USA or Canada want to see communists in Alaska.
 
Russia would have gotten even more oil supplies if they had kept Alaska. The Russian Empire never considered Alaska to be very important (they hadn't discovered the oil yet). That's why they sold it. Lets assume they don't (which is a little unlikely). The USSR might think of it as unimportant too at least until oil is found. Maybe the Americans or Canadians could take it during the Russian civil war. Or it could become a Russian Empire in exile. If that doesn't happen (again a little inlikely), the Japanese might invade it to get a foothold on the American continent. Sadly for the Japanese, the USSR's involvement in the pacific theater might hasten their defeat. A Korea that is entirely communist is a possible result. Involvement in the pacific will slow Soviet advance in Europe though. Maybe we'll get pictures of Russian and American soldiers shaking hands on the Oder or even the Vistula river. If the Russians decide to place nuclear missiles in Alaska then there's nothing the Americans can do about it. Alaska is territory of the USSR unlike Cuba. Maybe the Canadians will develop their own nuclear arsenal as a response.
 
This is my first post so forgive me if it's not that good. What if the Russian Empire never sold Alaska to the United States in 1868. What effect on history do you think it would have? If they kept in into the Cold War would it have had any effect on it? Could we have an Alaskan Missile Crisis, maybe? What if they sold it to another country? Could that have any effect on it?

Stalin orders a railroad causeway to be built across the Bering Straits?
 
Actually, I kind of like - in a perverted sort of way - an Alaskan Missile Crisis/War. In another direction, I rather suspect, if Alaska remains in Russian hands, and there is a Communist revolution, Alaska could become a war zone before nukes are developed - say around 1925 or so?

Bobindelaware
 
There is a chance it will come under Japanese control during the Russo-Japanese War (though HIGHLY unlikely), giving Japan a good shot on America in WWII (or WWI if a German telegram reaches Japan to assault America). Equally unlikely. You can see a HUGE drop in the historical amount of US oil. The USSR would have been much richer with that little oilfield. Plus, (less seriously) many more Alaskans would be poor without their thousands.

EDIT: Wow, I hadn't seen Onkel Willie's post when I wrote this. Great minds think alike, I guess.
 
Russia would have gotten even more oil supplies if they had kept Alaska. The Russian Empire never considered Alaska to be very important (they hadn't discovered the oil yet). That's why they sold it. Lets assume they don't (which is a little unlikely). The USSR might think of it as unimportant too at least until oil is found. Maybe the Americans or Canadians could take it during the Russian civil war. Or it could become a Russian Empire in exile. If that doesn't happen (again a little inlikely), the Japanese might invade it to get a foothold on the American continent. Sadly for the Japanese, the USSR's involvement in the pacific theater might hasten their defeat. A Korea that is entirely communist is a possible result. Involvement in the pacific will slow Soviet advance in Europe though. Maybe we'll get pictures of Russian and American soldiers shaking hands on the Oder or even the Vistula river. If the Russians decide to place nuclear missiles in Alaska then there's nothing the Americans can do about it. Alaska is territory of the USSR unlike Cuba. Maybe the Canadians will develop their own nuclear arsenal as a response.


That's assuming Russia develops as in OTL without the $7,200,000 from the sale, and that the discover of oil there has no impact whatsoever on any part of Russian history for the next century.
 
I don't think a land bridge, built in a timely manner, would happen in Stalin's time.

My rough estimates:

92 km long
50 m tall
base 500 m wide, top 100 m wide --> avg thickness 300 m

1.4 billion m^3 of fill needed : about 40x the Closure Dike for the Zuiderzee.

Construction time: 7 years
Workforce needed: 160,000 workers
Cost: $28 billion (2004 Euros)
 
Sounds like something Stalin would do, maybe he could use it as a project for captured Germans. Also I think if Japan tried to invade Alaska the US would invoke the Monroe doctrine and occupy Alaska or give it back to Russia.
 
US would invoke the Monroe doctrine and occupy Alaska or give it back to Russia.

I can't see them giving a piece of what they would regard as their contienent back to the Communist Russians.

I can (if everything else stays as per real life) se them claimming it in return for the Lend Lease.
 
There is a chance it will come under Japanese control during the Russo-Japanese War (though HIGHLY unlikely), giving Japan a good shot on America in WWII (or WWI if a German telegram reaches Japan to assault America). Equally unlikely. You can see a HUGE drop in the historical amount of US oil. The USSR would have been much richer with that little oilfield. Plus, (less seriously) many more Alaskans would be poor without their thousands.

EDIT: Wow, I hadn't seen Onkel Willie's post when I wrote this. Great minds think alike, I guess.

I find this alternative to be highly unlikely. The US would have become involved in the Russo-Japanese War, not as a combatant but as a potentially hostile neutral to the Japanese. Roosevelt would probably interpret the Monroe Doctrine in a way to keep Alaska a neutral Russian territory that neither Japan nor Russia would be able to use.

Don't see the Japanese changing sides during WWI since it would be very bad for them to do so.

Anyhow, Japanese Alaska would fall under the other provisions of the Washington Conference of 1922 and Japan would not be allowed to build any defenses there. By the 1930s the US would be rearming much sooner than OTL. I would also consider the possibility of American isolationalism being butterflied away. The US and Canada would be working together to figure out how to handle the Japanese in Alaska.
 
I can't see them giving a piece of what they would regard as their contienent back to the Communist Russians.

I can (if everything else stays as per real life) se them claimming it in return for the Lend Lease.

I don't think it's very likely for history to go AIOTL for more than half century after this POD...
 
This is almost a question of how long could that piece of land be ignored for. If the Russians don't invest too much in it, the gold rush and the oil discoveries could be postponed indefinitely - after all, there weren't even a thousand Russians there, and if the Americans were offered it, it implies Russia wasn't exactly about to throw more money at it.
 
Hell, it might even be annexed by the USA anyway in the RCW.

Why? There is no pretext the USA can use to send troops and annex a territory that isn't even contiguous with their own. And how is Willson going to demand the Japanese to abandone Siberia when he is already claiming Russian territory for himself? :confused:

If anything, it's more likely to see Alaska proclaiming independence after Semyonov's provisional government in Siberia falls, and then its independence being guarded by British-Canadian troops and ships.
 
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