Stalin Voted 3rd Greatest Historical Figure

Soviet dictator Josef Stalin voted Russia's third-greatest historical figure, according to state television network.

By: Jennifer Rogers | WKRG-TV
Published: December 29, 2008

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MOSCOW (AP) - 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 SMS votes.
Nevsky, subsequently canonized, amassed numerous military
victories over European invaders during his 13th Century reign.
In second place was Pyotr Stolypin - a prime minister under
turn-of-the-century czar Nicholas II - who suppressed leftist
revolutionaries.