http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21581967-when-tsarist-empire-reached-california-how-east-was-lost
Rezanov is the central character in Owen Matthews’s enthralling account of Russia’s great misfire: its attempt to colonise America. Many know that Russia sold Alaska to America, rather cheaply, in 1867, fearing it had become indefensible. But few know how it became Russian in the first place. Had history gone a little differently—if gold had been found a little earlier, or if Russia had not been so extraordinarily unlucky in its rulers—California’s Russian River might be a geopolitical reality, rather than a toponymic echo.
