Stalin voted third-greatest Russian

A Russian state television network says Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who sent millions to their deaths in the Great Purge of the 1930s, has been voted the country’s third-greatest historical figure.

Rights activists have blasted Stalin’s inclusion in the 90-day, nationwide project run by the Rossiya channel.

They say authorities are trying to gloss over Stalin’s atrocities and glorify his tyranny.

Medieval leader Alexander Nevsky was voted the greatest Russian, with over a half-million internet and text message votes.

Nevsky, subsequently canonised, amassed numerous military victories over European invaders during his 13th-century reign.

In second place was Pyotr Stolypin – a prime minister under tsar Nicholas II.

Stolypin, who received more than 523,000 votes, was recognised for land reform but gained notoriety for his brutal quashing of left-wing revolutionaries. He saw to it that thousands were hanged for attempting to overthrow the imperial rulers.

The 12-person shortlist for yesterday’s final vote featured various historical heavyweights from writers Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoyevsky to Soviet father Lenin and Ivan the Terrible.

The rules excluded any living person, including Russia’s popular ruling tandem of President Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin.

In presenting Stalin, the project’s website, www.nameofrussia.ru, refers to the terror he imposed and acknowledges that millions died of starvation and in the large network of hard labour camps he created to punish so-called “enemies of the people” and scare the population into obedience.

It goes on to say, however, that “for all the defects of the Stalin modernisation, it should be recognised that all the tasks set before the country were completed.”

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki human rights watchdog, has called Stalin’s inclusion a “requiem for humanitarian education”.