The immediate impacts of Bering’s and Chirikov’s voyages were few. Russian bureaucracy moved with glacial speed, and, as always, it was difficult to maintain interest—and the funding necessary to act on that interest—in lands thousands of miles to the east. There were always more pressing matters to be addressed at the doors of Europe. Upon the return of the survivors of these voyages, however, a seed was planted that was to grow into the tree of the Russian American Empire. That seed was furs. Bering’s survivors, principally Chirikov’s men, managed to return with a load of rich furs,
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