What Would Happen If Russia Tried To Take Alaska Back?

Alaska, per a 1988 New York Times feature, holds a romantic place in Russian thought, though as a place where there are many lost Russians. Gennadi Gerasimov, Mikhail Gorbachev's spokesman, even recounted calling every person in Anchorage surnamed Ivanov hoping to find any remaining speakers of the Russian language but to no avail.

Alaska, per a 1988 New York Times feature, holds a romantic place in Russian thought, though as a place where there are many lost Russians. Gennadi Gerasimov, Mikhail Gorbachev's spokesman, even recounted calling every person in Anchorage surnamed Ivanov hoping to find any remaining speakers of the Russian language but to no avail.

Now, if Russia retook Alaska, it would naturally follow that the Russian language would return to the administration alongside a handful of Russian-speaking officials and colonists. So how would this be received in Alaska? It depends on the circumstances. According to the Russian Federal Constitution's Article 68, the sole federal official language is Russian, which must be used at all levels of administration. But Russia's republics are also allowed to institute their own official languages alongside Russian (Tatar in Tatarstan, Chechen in Chechnya, Ossetian in North Ossetia, etc.) So English and Russian could theoretically co-exist if Alaska joined the Russian Federation as one of its federal subjects, placing it on par with the aforementioned republics that employ other languages alongside Russian.

This arrangement would better suit Russian ambitions in the short-term. Per NBC, only 1% of Alaskans identify as ethnic Russians, so the number of speakers is probably even less, school immersion programs notwithstanding. Even without the approximately 26,000 active duty soldiers (via USO), the number of local Russian speakers is still negligible. Now, some of these English speakers could choose to leave for more culturally-familiar environs, making the transition (from the Russian perspective) a bit easier. But Russification would still be a difficult battle.

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