Over 2.3 million Russians have voted in a historical campaign run by Rossiya TV, Russia's state funded Television station, meant to find the "face of Russia" - a leader, or public figure, who deserves to be thought of as the nation's face.
The votes were cast online, where Russian voters were given a choice of 50 leading cultural figures from Russian history. With over 280,000 votes, Stalin is currently leading.
Worried about the meaning of the result, if Stalin were chosen, Alexander Lyubimov, a Rossiya TV producer, asked Russian surfers on popular Russian social network, Odnoklassniki.ru, to vote for Tsar Nicholas II, who came a close second on the poll.
With Russians having an incredible range of cultural and scientific figures in their history and culture, the choice of Stalin - a dictator in charge of the deaths of millions, baffles.
As well as Lenin, Yeltzin, a slew of Czars and other military and political leaders, the list includes such western culture luminaries as Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and Bulgakov.
For the full list, go here (Russian).
According to a Wall Street Journal story on the poll, Stalin has been revived in recent years, as an admired national symbol:
"As the Kremlin has adopted a feel-good brand of strident nationalism in recent years, Stalin has been revived. Historians say the Kremlin has skirted awkward historical moments that might spoil a message of Russia's greatness. The 70th anniversary of the Great Terror, which saw as many as two million people killed, passed last year without official ceremony." (source)
Too bad people don't try to fidn out more about history and do not think about what they read. Equatiing Stalin with Hitler simply shows the extent of US cold war propaganda combined with ignorance. It is like saying baseball and basketball are the same since they both have balls. Who would not vote for a lower-class working man who raised himself up, made sure his country was industrialized, presided over the war effort to defeat Hitler, got his country additional lands, and then stood up to the Superpower? Why do you think they call Alexander of Macedonia "Great" - oh I know, you don't think. It was not for his poetry. In Mongolia they honor Chingis Khan. But hey, why do you think in America they elect Bush and don't like Ben Laden: Ben Laden had millions of dollars and a sweet life ahead, but he gave it up to fight for a cause (a bad one of course) and chose hardships. G.W. Bush used his money to avoid fighting for his country. And yet, if we took away their names, people would prefer Ben Laden. But because he attacked us and Bush leads us, we prefer Bush. That is biased of course. Thank God people of each country get to have their own opinions, without a foreigner deciding what their "greatest" person would be. This is a freedom of speech and freedom to think
Too bad nobody on this blog knows history nor thinks about it. Equatiing Stalin with Hitler simply shows the extent of US cold war propaganda combined with ignorance. It is like saying baseball and basketball are the same since they both have balls. Who would not vote for a lower-class working man who raised himself up, made sure his country was industrialized, presided over the war effort to defeat Hitler, got his country additional lands, and then stood up to the Superpower? Why do you think they call Alexander of Macedonia "Great" - oh I know, you don't think. It was not for his poetry. In Mongolia they honor Chingis Khan. But hey, why do you think in America they elect Bush and don't like Ben Laden: Ben Laden had millions of dollars and a sweet life ahead, but he gave it up to fight for a cause (a bad one of course) and chose hardships. G.W. Bush used his money to avoid fighting for his country. And yet, if we took away their names, people would prefer Ben Laden. But because he attacked us and Bush leads us, we prefer Bush. That is biased of course. Thank God people of each country get to have their own opinions, without a foreigner deciding what their "greatest" person would be. This is a freedom of speech and freedom to think
What a sick country! This guy was Hitler dressed in red! Down with all those who wish to impose their corrupt will on others by force!
gee... if only they could read... or bother to even try... to translate properly they would not have come to such a moronic conclusion....Stalin is not the face of russia... and no one voted for him for that. He is the history of russia. This poll, if it shows anything, from the pre-conclusion results... its that Stalin made quite an impact on russian history. Thats it. Nothing more.
I do not like that translation "face of Russia". The actual site is asking people to NAME a person, who played the most significant role in Russian history. It is different from the FACE of Russia. Plus the voting is not completed yet to state any conclusions. I agree with the statement above, you should not speculate.
Who else would you nominate? Catherine the Great? Ivan the Terrible? Anna Kournikova? Vladimir Putin?
He's currently #2 and what's more, Lenin and Stalin together got 20% of votes. http://www.nameofrussia.r u/rating.html?all=1 (in russian). So please don't speculate... Besides if you were brainwashed from your birth, who knows how would you vote ;)