HOME | DD

Description
Yes, I made it this big on purpose.
---
The Alaskan Federal Republic (Федеративная Республика Аляска), more commonly known as Alaska (Аляска), is a federal republic in northern North America, the northernmost sovereign nation of the continent. Despite being one of North America's largest nations, it is also incredibly sparsely populated with only about 865,000 people at the last census in 2020. Notably Alaska is also the only Russophone nation in North America, and the only such nation outside of Eurasia, stemming from its history as a Russian colony.

While Alaska had been a possession of Russia (as "Russian America") since the reign of Catherine the Great, it was during the reign of Tsar Alexander II that the colony received more attention from St. Petersburg. Having recently lost the Crimean War against Britain and France, and knowing that Britain could rather easily overrun Russian America if they so chose, combined with the decline of the fur trade, popular opinion in the government leaned towards selling it to the United States. When the United States collapsed in the War of Dissolution, however, the Tsar's government briefly considered selling it to Britain or California before accepting that it would simply have to remain in Russian hands for now. Renamed 'Alaska' after an Aleut word for the mainland, a new doctrine of "Siberia's Siberia" was put into place and the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy began to re-invest into it as a means of protecting Russia's Pacific coastline from British offensives as they began to expand their power and control into Manchuria.

Alaska remained an economic and political albatross around Russia's neck until a stroke of fortune came in 1898. Missionaries in what is now Trotkhit discovered gold in the Yukkhana River, drawing a significant amount of the world's attention to it (and the neighboring Yukon Territory in British Canada) and leading to an influx of settlers that came primarily from Russia, bolstering the colony's population and allowing Russia to again derive an economic net positive from it. This however wouldn't last long, and as World War I dragged Russia to a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Central Powers the February Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II before the October Revolution saw the rise of the nascent USSR. In this chaos, Alaska had sided significantly with the "White Russians" supporting the Russian Republic and opposing the USSR. Despite an effort from the Whites and an international coalition to defeat the Reds, the Soviet forces ultimately overwhelmed the Kerensky Government.

Facing the downfall of the White Russian forces, many chose to evacuate to Alaska. Overwhelmed, there was brief discussion of claiming the status of a Government-in-Exile before the colony instead declared its independence and formed an emergency government to draft a new constitution, supported and protected from invasion by the Soviets (who claimed it as an autonomous part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) by both the British Empire and the North American League. Now cut off from the Russian mainland the new government organized along what the Russian Republic had attempted to form itself into with heavy influence from the Post-American Nations. During this time Alaska would develop close economic and political ties with California and Canada by necessity, though with Canada's population, economy, and military centered far from the Pacific, Alaska would ultimately fall into the sphere of Californian hegemony.

When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939 there was massive concern that Alaska would be invaded as part of Trotsky's aggressive "Global Revolution", but its remoteness and his ongoing concerns with Japan forewent any invasion. Nonetheless Alaska would become a major port of attack for the North American League against the Empire of Japan, and ultimately also Russia during the Chukchi Campaign from 1944 to 1946. By the time the war ended Alaska had received large new subsidies from the Allied Forces and was welcomed into the new United Nations, along with supporting the formation of the North American Union (though it wouldn't formally join until 1960). It also resumed diplomatic relations with Russia despite its eastern frontier now belonging to a newly-independent Siberia, which helped ease Alaska's fears of Russian reprisal.

Since the end of the war Alaska has been utterly reshaped by a single massive economic development: oil. With the discovery of its own rich petrochemical reserves at a time when global demand for oil was increasing Alaska rapidly became flush with money to the point that it began to distribute "economic subsidies" in the form of an annual payment of A₽1,500 to every citizen. Essentially the government was deriving so much money from the oil industry that it could afford to give away free money to all its citizens. The "Alaska Permanent Fund" has increased its wealth so much that the Alaskan Government has paid out A₽2,000 monthly since 1983 as the first program of universal basic income in the North American Union. This also drove development of large parts of its economy revolving around said industry, in particular the development of local airports serving communities that previously relied on dogsleds and the growth of Ankoridzh as far and away Alaska's largest city. It was to the point that the capital was moved from Novoarkhangelsk to Ankoridzh in 1972.

Despite being so comparatively underdeveloped Alaska nonetheless has a relatively high standard of living and its per-capita wealth is one of the highest in the NAU. It also has a reputation of massive areas of unspoiled wilderness (the so-called "Last Frontier") that are part of colossal national parks, making tourism one of the biggest tentpoles of the Alaskan economy. In fact by 2018 it was said that Alaska's economy consisted of three things: the oil industry, the tourism industry, and everything else. This is obviously concerning to many, especially as Alaska's oil production has continually decreased since its peak in 1988 and is now less than 1/4th of its historic maximum. Alaska's own government is caught in the middle of a three-way conflict about the matter. The first is that the nation's economy (and by extension its government) is obviously dependent on the oil industry, but the second is that as global climate change grows more severe then Alaska would be one of the hardest-hit regions, especially considering as the permafrost begins to thaw.

The third is a result of its political system. While Alaska is nominally divided into seven guberniyas (governorates), in practice more than half of its land is controlled by the "Federal Subject Nations", self-governing political entities created for the Native Alaskans that locally form a majority in their respective areas but overall constitute less than 20% of its population. In fact Port Nicholas, capital of the Bering Governorate, is territorially within the "Republic of the Yukon Delta" and also serves as its capital under the name Mamterilleq, and less than 10% of the Bering Governorate is not part of the Federal Subjects. These self-governing native entities also have vast amounts of internal control over the resources in their territory. What makes this important is that the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, where 90% of Alaska's oil is produced, is entirely within the Northern Inupiat Republic and as such despite being operated by the state-owned Alaska Oil the land (and thus any expansion of production) is overseen by the NIR, which along with the majority of the Federal Subjects opposes the expansion of drilling and further degradation of their native lands.

Caught in this struggle, Alaska may presently still be doing quite well but its future is deeply uncertain especially as the United Nations announced its 2020 Global Green Initiative to begin a movement away from oil dependency and towards renewable sources of energy. The Alaskan government is also deeply divided, especially since the North American Union in general has begun to push to eventually halt oil production (despite the reservations of its member states) and the Alaskan economy has no coherent plan to adapt to this changing global political and economic situation. In January 2021, President Zhdan Kunetzov declared that by March there would be a new "Green Alaskan Future" roadmap for handling the changing global situation, but as of April 2021 such a plan has yet to be unveiled.

Ultimately Alaska's future lies in limbo. Many expect that as oil production continues to decline eventually the Alaskan economy as it currently exists will collapse no matter what, but the degree and severity of it ranges from merely disastrous to outright catastrophic depending on various predictions and models. Alaska is a major transport hub for the world (Ankoridzh International Airport being a massive airport hub for transpolar international flights) and tourism continues to increase along with some other revenues from resource gathering operations and NAU subsidies, but the fact that Alaska cannot sustain its current situation without oil revenues is unavoidable. In the end, Alaska's future depends on the present, and whether or not it or its government can reasonably figure out what it wants its future to be.

Description
Yes, I made it this big on purpose.
---
The Alaskan Federal Republic (Федеративная Республика Аляска), more commonly known as Alaska (Аляска), is a federal republic in northern North America, the northernmost sovereign nation of the continent. Despite being one of North America's largest nations, it is also incredibly sparsely populated with only about 865,000 people at the last census in 2020. Notably Alaska is also the only Russophone nation in North America, and the only such nation outside of Eurasia, stemming from its history as a Russian colony.

While Alaska had been a possession of Russia (as "Russian America") since the reign of Catherine the Great, it was during the reign of Tsar Alexander II that the colony received more attention from St. Petersburg. Having recently lost the Crimean War against Britain and France, and knowing that Britain could rather easily overrun Russian America if they so chose, combined with the decline of the fur trade, popular opinion in the government leaned towards selling it to the United States. When the United States collapsed in the War of Dissolution, however, the Tsar's government briefly considered selling it to Britain or California before accepting that it would simply have to remain in Russian hands for now. Renamed 'Alaska' after an Aleut word for the mainland, a new doctrine of "Siberia's Siberia" was put into place and the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy began to re-invest into it as a means of protecting Russia's Pacific coastline from British offensives as they began to expand their power and control into Manchuria.

Alaska remained an economic and political albatross around Russia's neck until a stroke of fortune came in 1898. Missionaries in what is now Trotkhit discovered gold in the Yukkhana River, drawing a significant amount of the world's attention to it (and the neighboring Yukon Territory in British Canada) and leading to an influx of settlers that came primarily from Russia, bolstering the colony's population and allowing Russia to again derive an economic net positive from it. This however wouldn't last long, and as World War I dragged Russia to a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Central Powers the February Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II before the October Revolution saw the rise of the nascent USSR. In this chaos, Alaska had sided significantly with the "White Russians" supporting the Russian Republic and opposing the USSR. Despite an effort from the Whites and an international coalition to defeat the Reds, the Soviet forces ultimately overwhelmed the Kerensky Government.

Facing the downfall of the White Russian forces, many chose to evacuate to Alaska. Overwhelmed, there was brief discussion of claiming the status of a Government-in-Exile before the colony instead declared its independence and formed an emergency government to draft a new constitution, supported and protected from invasion by the Soviets (who claimed it as an autonomous part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) by both the British Empire and the North American League. Now cut off from the Russian mainland the new government organized along what the Russian Republic had attempted to form itself into with heavy influence from the Post-American Nations. During this time Alaska would develop close economic and political ties with California and Canada by necessity, though with Canada's population, economy, and military centered far from the Pacific, Alaska would ultimately fall into the sphere of Californian hegemony.

When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939 there was massive concern that Alaska would be invaded as part of Trotsky's aggressive "Global Revolution", but its remoteness and his ongoing concerns with Japan forewent any invasion. Nonetheless Alaska would become a major port of attack for the North American League against the Empire of Japan, and ultimately also Russia during the Chukchi Campaign from 1944 to 1946. By the time the war ended Alaska had received large new subsidies from the Allied Forces and was welcomed into the new United Nations, along with supporting the formation of the North American Union (though it wouldn't formally join until 1960). It also resumed diplomatic relations with Russia despite its eastern frontier now belonging to a newly-independent Siberia, which helped ease Alaska's fears of Russian reprisal.

Since the end of the war Alaska has been utterly reshaped by a single massive economic development: oil. With the discovery of its own rich petrochemical reserves at a time when global demand for oil was increasing Alaska rapidly became flush with money to the point that it began to distribute "economic subsidies" in the form of an annual payment of A₽1,500 to every citizen. Essentially the government was deriving so much money from the oil industry that it could afford to give away free money to all its citizens. The "Alaska Permanent Fund" has increased its wealth so much that the Alaskan Government has paid out A₽2,000 monthly since 1983 as the first program of universal basic income in the North American Union. This also drove development of large parts of its economy revolving around said industry, in particular the development of local airports serving communities that previously relied on dogsleds and the growth of Ankoridzh as far and away Alaska's largest city. It was to the point that the capital was moved from Novoarkhangelsk to Ankoridzh in 1972.

Despite being so comparatively underdeveloped Alaska nonetheless has a relatively high standard of living and its per-capita wealth is one of the highest in the NAU. It also has a reputation of massive areas of unspoiled wilderness (the so-called "Last Frontier") that are part of colossal national parks, making tourism one of the biggest tentpoles of the Alaskan economy. In fact by 2018 it was said that Alaska's economy consisted of three things: the oil industry, the tourism industry, and everything else. This is obviously concerning to many, especially as Alaska's oil production has continually decreased since its peak in 1988 and is now less than 1/4th of its historic maximum. Alaska's own government is caught in the middle of a three-way conflict about the matter. The first is that the nation's economy (and by extension its government) is obviously dependent on the oil industry, but the second is that as global climate change grows more severe then Alaska would be one of the hardest-hit regions, especially considering as the permafrost begins to thaw.

The third is a result of its political system. While Alaska is nominally divided into seven guberniyas (governorates), in practice more than half of its land is controlled by the "Federal Subject Nations", self-governing political entities created for the Native Alaskans that locally form a majority in their respective areas but overall constitute less than 20% of its population. In fact Port Nicholas, capital of the Bering Governorate, is territorially within the "Republic of the Yukon Delta" and also serves as its capital under the name Mamterilleq, and less than 10% of the Bering Governorate is not part of the Federal Subjects. These self-governing native entities also have vast amounts of internal control over the resources in their territory. What makes this important is that the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, where 90% of Alaska's oil is produced, is entirely within the Northern Inupiat Republic and as such despite being operated by the state-owned Alaska Oil the land (and thus any expansion of production) is overseen by the NIR, which along with the majority of the Federal Subjects opposes the expansion of drilling and further degradation of their native lands.

Caught in this struggle, Alaska may presently still be doing quite well but its future is deeply uncertain especially as the United Nations announced its 2020 Global Green Initiative to begin a movement away from oil dependency and towards renewable sources of energy. The Alaskan government is also deeply divided, especially since the North American Union in general has begun to push to eventually halt oil production (despite the reservations of its member states) and the Alaskan economy has no coherent plan to adapt to this changing global political and economic situation. In January 2021, President Zhdan Kunetzov declared that by March there would be a new "Green Alaskan Future" roadmap for handling the changing global situation, but as of April 2021 such a plan has yet to be unveiled.

Ultimately Alaska's future lies in limbo. Many expect that as oil production continues to decline eventually the Alaskan economy as it currently exists will collapse no matter what, but the degree and severity of it ranges from merely disastrous to outright catastrophic depending on various predictions and models. Alaska is a major transport hub for the world (Ankoridzh International Airport being a massive airport hub for transpolar international flights) and tourism continues to increase along with some other revenues from resource gathering operations and NAU subsidies, but the fact that Alaska cannot sustain its current situation without oil revenues is unavoidable. In the end, Alaska's future depends on the present, and whether or not it or its government can reasonably figure out what it wants its future to be.