No, thanks to some clever backroom dealing.

When war broke out in autumn 1853, Russian America could never have stood against an assault from the sea. There were only a handful of soldiers behind wooden stockades, with minimal ammunition and arms in Russian America at the time. So woeful was their equipment and numbers that the Russians had long ago learned to follow a strategy of coexistence and trade rather than conquest, as the Americans, British and Spanish did. It was a matter of necessity if the Russians wanted any control.

In any event, Russia's vice consul at San Francisco, Peter S. Kostromitinov, knew the situation and took steps to do something about it. Under the charter of 1799, the Russian-American Company had authority to administer the colony as it saw fit, and that meant it could sell out to a foreign firm. To prevent the British from capturing Russian America, that's exactly what he planned. It would all be an act, of course, merely cover to protect the territory, but it would stand up in court.

One of the closest American companies to the RAC was the American-Russian Commercial company, whose board included San Francisco Mayor Charles Brenham, well-known attorney Abel Guy, and other prominent figures of San Franciscan society.

The two companies hurriedly filled out a deal and forwarded it on to the Russian legation in Washington, D.C. for approval. The deal had blanks for date and price, and when it arrived in D.C., it was a complete surprise -- Kostromitinov was acting completely on his own.

This deal fell on the desk of Russia's new American minister, Edouard de Stoeckl, who had happened to stop in America on his way to Hawaii, where he was to become the consul general there. Instead, he learned that Russia's previous American minister had just died, and as de Stoeckl was on scene, he was the best choice for the position. He would stay for the next 15 years.

While all this was going on, the Russian-American Company was making its own plans from headquarters in St. Petersburg. In 1839, the RAC and the Hudson's Bay Company had come to an agreement whereby Hudson's Bay Company would be allowed to lease the mainland portions of the Alaska panhandle from the RAC in exchange for a set amount of furs and supplies.

These supplies solved (to a debatable degree) the perennial Russian problem of supplying its American holdings. This contributed to the Russian abandonment of Fort Ross in California, as that agricultural colony was no longer needed to supply Russian America.

In any event, the lease was only for 10 years, but it was so advantageous to both companies that it was renewed in 1850 for another decade. When war broke out, both companies felt it was no reason to stop trade. The RAC contacted its partners in the Hudson's Bay Company, who in turn put pressure on the British government. Russian America would be neutral territory for the duration of the war.

This did not prevent British and French ships from attacking RAC ships and facilities in the Russian Far East or elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean, of course, and the damage done to the company was substantial enough that it never really recovered from the losses.

While the idea of a pretend sale to the American-Russian Commercial Company was overtaken by the actions of the RAC in Europe, it had a powerful side effect. Shortly after word of the pretend sale arrived on the East Coast, it was picked up by several newspapers who reported it as a sale in fact. Several -- particularly New York newspapers -- whether through misinterpretation or mistakes, said it was evidence that Russia was willing to get rid of its American possessions.

This led to interest in an American purchase, an event interrupted by the Civil War. Not until after that war's end did Secretary of State Seward have a chance to finally follow through.