He sent millions to their deaths in the gulag, but that has not deterred
Russians from voting en masse for Josef Stalin as the face of their nation.
The Soviet tyrant and Second World War leader is battling Tsar Nicholas II for
first place in The Name of Russia, a domestic version of the BBC series
Great Britons. Stalin had been well ahead in the online vote until the
show's producer appealed to members of a popular Russian social networking
site to back Nicholas II.
The Tsar edged in front tonight as communists and monarchists whipped up
support for their candidates. Stalin has received almost 263,000 votes so
far, against more than 267,000 for Nicholas II.
Lenin, the Tsar's nemesis, was third with nearly 187,000 votes. The top dozen
included Peter the Great, Pushkin, Catherine the Great, Yuri Gagarin, Boris
Yeltsin and Ivan the Terrible.
Alexander Lyubimov, who produces the historical contest for state-run Rossiya
TV, said that he had urged a "flash-mob" from Odnoklassniki.ru, a
Russian equivalent of Facebook, to support the Tsar against Stalin.
“I said, ‘Let's commemorate Stalin's disastrous input into Russia's history by
clicking for Nicholas II, whose family was massacred by the Bolsheviks',” Mr
Lyubimov said. Stalin's supporters had also engaged in mass voting, he said,
because the site did not prevent people clicking repeatedly for one
candidate from the same computer.
Almost 2.4 million votes have been cast for the list of 50 prominent figures
from Russian history. The most popular 12 will be reviewed on TV from
September before the public votes for the winner in December.
“There will be very negative opinions presented when we are discussing Lenin
and Stalin. In my opinion these guys don't have a chance to win because they
do not relate to the lives of modern Russians,” Mr Lyubimov said.
The Communist Party of St Petersburg is determined to prove him wrong. The
party's leader, Sergei Malinkovich, told The Times that victory could revive
the cult of Stalin and help to elevate the atheist dictator to sainthood.
“If he wins, we will ask the Russian Orthodox Church to consider canonising
Stalin. Lenin was a Communist for the Church, but Stalin was a real national
leader. For us, he is like Napoleon is to the French,” Mr Malinkovich said.
“People remember that Stalin didn't live for himself but for the country and
the people. We see this vote as the first sign that there will be memorials
to Stalin in Russia again.
“Of course there were gulags, but they did not have the widespread character
that people in the West think. If they existed now, two thirds of
bureaucrats would be in jail because they are so corrupt.”
The party declared war on the latest Indiana Jones film in May, accusing stars
Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett of promoting crude anti-Soviet propaganda.
Mr Malinkovich said that activists were urging sympathisers to vote for
Stalin.
Monarchists are determined that Russia's most significant historical figure
should be Nicholas II. The 90th anniversary of the Bolshevik execution of
the Tsar and his family takes place on Saturday.
Nikolai Lukyanov, head of the All-Russia Monarchist Centre, told The Times
that it was a contest between Russia's imperial history and its Soviet past.
“There are Soviet people and there are Russian people and the two are
absolutely different. Unfortunately, the majority now are Soviet,” he said.
“The most important thing for us is that there is interest among the people
in the person who was the last Russian monarch.”
The Orthodox Church is unlikely to heed calls to canonise Stalin, who ordered
the destruction of thousands of churches after the Bolshevik revolution.
Patriarch Alexiy II marked the anniversary of the royal murder with a
message, saying: “The murder of the Tsar's family marked the start of
atrocities that kept affecting our people for decades ... No political goal
and no reforms can rest on the blood of innocent people, especially
children.”
Winston Churchill was voted the Greatest Briton in the BBC series. The
Ukrainian version was mired in scandal last month after its editor-in-chief
alleged that voting had been rigged to ensure Yaroslav the Wise, an 11th
Century prince of Kievan Rus, defeated the controversial nationalist Stepan
Bandera.
Joseph Stalin
— Born Joseph Dzhugashvili in 1879 to a poor cobbler in the town
of Gori in Georgia, which was then an imperial Russian colony
— Joined the political underground in 1900, fomenting labour
demonstrations and strikes. Arrested seven times for revolutionary activity
between 1902 and 1913, undergoing repeated imprisonment and exile
— Returning from exile in Siberia in 1917, Stalin switched to the
policy of armed seizure of power
— Forced 25 million rural households to amalgamate in state farms
in 1928, causing famine and deaths of 10 million peasants
— Concluded pact with Hitler in 1939 that encouraged the German
leader to attack Poland and begin Second World War
— Died in 1953
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Folks, this is meaningless. 6% of Russia is on-line; 53% on-line live in one of two cities; the website allows multiple votes from the same PC. In 4th spot is a folk singer & you don't have to know a lick of Russian to vote. Google "nameofrussia" and join the fun.
It ain't Gallup. It ain't WWII.
fjd, Peter,
I'd vote for Ayn Rand as the Greatest Russian. She was born in St Petersburg and did not move to the US until she was an adult
Robert Enders, Fort Wayne, USA
In Russia stalinists are freaks, russian society shy away from them, but in the Internet there is space for them. On the whole Russian society refers to the vote entirely without interest, but when Stalin has become the leader, many people still decide to vote for the last legitimate Russian ruler.
Alexander, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Those praising Tsar (actually, Emperor) Nicholas II for his "benevolence" should read his biography. Even though he did not expressly order the workers' shooting of 1905, he approved of it, and on another occasion even scolded his officers for dispersing a workers' demonstration peacefully.
Anna, London,
Lenin wasnt just the greatest Russian leader but the greatest leader the world has ever seen!
Sven, Stockholm, Sweden
Strange choices Monarch or Dictator looks like Lenin is long gone .All well known writers, philosophers, musicians are put a side . Like Russian films where drama and radicalism and admiration for power coexists in one scene
Huseyin, Shanghai, China
Says something about current Russian mentallity. No wonder the Cold Wars back.
mek, London, United Kingdom
Can hardly call myself an expert on Russian history but I always thought Lenin carried more admiration than Stalin in the long term. Never had Tsar Nicholas II down as any kind of hero either but rather a weak leader who opened the door for the two above mentioned.
Oli, Ashford, England
I find it highly questionable that in the section at the end Halpin utterly fails to mention that Staling modernised Russia (allbeit at a very high human cost), into a country that broke the back of the Nazi war machine in WW2, by a very long way the majority of German losses were against the USSR
Andrew, Metrol,
I dont see why these men should be called great in anyway. All they did does not madder if people have not learned from it. Seeing what people have said just seems no one learns from the past.. Killing is nothing to be proud about.Which happend with both. does not madder how many died they're dead.
Dezirae, Calgary, Canada
Stalin was an evil man, just a whisker behind Hitler - bad not mad.Nicholas II was weak and ineffectual and is only worthy of sympathy because of the way he died.Great Russians:Peter the Great,Alexander II,Tchaikovsky,Tolstoy,Pushkin, Andrei Sakharov, and Yuri Gagarin
Richard, Bexhill, UK
surely chekov or dostoyevski would be preferable choices?
Alice, leeds,
Well, he cocluded pact with Hitler because no one in the West was ready to defend Russia from Nazies (yet they were very happy with Hitler as he "contained" comunism...)
El Sabiondon, Madrid,
Maybe we should all re-read Pats from Russia, who doesn't know anyone who voted for either leading candidate for the title. Wow! What a story! How can the Church canonize an atheist, who destroyed (literally & figuratively) so many beautiful (architecturally) churches, and all that art inside?
Martha, Hattiesburg, United States
I voted for Alexander II, but my father voted for Stalin. I think that we can't just cut out anyone from our history. And everybody should have the right to voice one's opinion.
Yes, Stalin was Georgian, but people were selected not by nationality but by services they rendered to our country.
Sergey, Moscow,
You cannot get through to the average peasant,in any country
C Smith, Burlington, Canada
You can vote at http://www.nameofrussia.ru/ There are pictures of the candidates so you don't need to read Russian.
Frank Upton, Solihull,
Any person who compares the two, Stalin the butcher and murderer,and Nicholas the weak but benevolent must be sick in their heads. How can one who killed millions be the greatest Russian, yes, the greatest murderer of Russian and others,but not as a public figure to be proud off.
L.A. ISUFI, B. County .N.J., UNITED STATES
How come no one has mentioned Tolstoy - not just the greatest Russina probably the greatest man
Ben, bath,
Or Pam in St. Petersburg, maybe it shows what the majority of your nation feel, rather than the trendy, westernised few in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Jamie, Halifax, West Yorkshire
Loads voted for Tony Blair here - three times. 750,000 Iraqis plus died in his and Bush's war.
We are no better.
Dave, Slough,
Tsar Nicholas didn't order massacres, when people died during his reign it was usually down to ineptitude, not policy. As for poor Pepe, someone call urgently for the men in white coats to come and take him away.
Susannah, Hereford,
PS Nicholas II didn't order the massacre at the Winter Palace in the 1905 Rebellion.
A priest led a crowd, marching for fairness, Nicholas was in Crimea and the cossack guards were spooked.
They fired indiscriminately, which led to what happened on that day.
Andrew Sonderburg, Vienna, Austria
That's absolutely disgusting! Stalin should not even be included in the "vote list" at all! There's something profoundly sinister in lauding the mass-destroyer of such scale as Stalin. This voting tendency unless it's all rigged, as it may well be shows that people might be manipulated.
Pam , St.Petersburg,
They should choose Socrates. He said that all evil stems from stupidity.
Or maybe the Pilate, who allowed the masses to choose Barabbas over Jesus.
I suggest Shakespeare for their motto: "You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things."
Eugene, heidelberg, germany
I don't know anybody who voted for either stalin or a tsar - the results look very funny, indeed. My choice is Pushkin...
pats, togs, Russia
I'm more suprised that Tsar Nicholas II has been nominated! He after all ordered the massacre at the Winter Palace in 1905 and instructed Stolypin to purge the peasantry (Stolypin's neck tie anyone?). Furthermore, he was totally inept as a leader as the Russo-Japenese War and WWI proved.
Jon W, Shanghai,
Imagine the global reaction if the Germans voted between kaiser Wilhelm II or Hitler as 'the Greatest German'?
The fact that modern Russians are voting between two such defectives as being " the Greatest Russian" reveals more about the moral vacuum within modern Russia than anything else,
Dr Andris Lielmanis, Brampton, Canada.
10 million deaths? Try again.
This from Prof. Rudy Rummel, Nobel Prize finalist for his work on democide - mass murder by governments
"I calculate that Stalin murdered about 43,000,000 citizens and foreigners"
Ref:
http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-many-did-stalin-really-murder.html
Michael, London, UK
I agree with Faqi... how quickly we forget. Hopefully, they're not doomed to repeat the history they now want to glorify.
Ian, Washington, D.C., USA
It would be interesting to see what proportion of Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia etc would vote for Stalin. I'm guessing somewhere between zero and none.
Pauline Renton, Camberley, UK
Unbelievable. How can Russians admire one of the most brutal killers of the 20th century?
David Space, London, UK
Mr Payne shows a distinct lack of historical knowledge when he asserts the Tsar "killed millions".
Toby, Sydney,
I think Stalin must have foreseen this. He said "It doesn't matter who casts the votes; only who counts them".
jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA
Stalin worshipped the great, modern god: Efficiency.
A god that has turned western childhood in to a torment of more than 10 years of learning facts in our education factories (aka schools) that they will mostly never use and soon forget; rather like computer RAM chips.
By government diktat.
Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK
This voting technically is very primitive, allows the same person vote many times etc., so it has nothing to do with real popularity of Stalin or Tsar.
Sergey, Moscow, Russia
Further proof that Darwin and Intelligent Design are both wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gary Paterson, Vancouver, Canada
Glory be to Stalin.. The last ethical leader our World saw.. the last bastian of sanity.. before it all went to the dogs..
Pepe, London, UK
Stalin killed millions as did Tsar Nicholas. Therefore the moral of the story is they were both gits !!!!
Ian Payne, walsall,
Doesn't anyone realize that, ethnically, Stalin wasn't even Russian?
He was born in the country of Georgia as Iosef Vissarionovich Djugashvili, later changing his name to the alias Iosef Stalin. Granted, Georgia was under Russian control, but still...
Rick, Arbela Township, Michigan, U.S.A.
People seem to have very short memories. Stalin was a mass murderer of his own people. He was just a monster.
faqi, London, UK