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Nascent Drama

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Ninety years after Bolshevik revolutionaries shot dead the last tsar, Russians are fighting over who to lionise: Tsar Nicholas II or Josef Stalin.
 
They are vying for first place in an online poll organised by Russian television to choose the greatest hero in the country's history. Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin is third.
 
By Friday lunchtime, the last tsar led the survey with 419,476 votes, followed by Stalin with 381,361 and Lenin with 201,285. Some 2.8 million votes had been registered.
 
Russia's penchant for strong leaders is evident in the poll. Tsars Peter I and Catherine the Great feature in the top 10, along with crusading mediaeval prince Alexander Nevsky. Ivan the Terrible, who murdered his own son, is in 12th place.
 
Stalin, blamed by historians for 20 to 40 million deaths in political purges and agricultural famines during his 31-year rule, is popular with some Russians for defeating Nazi Germany, industrialising the Soviet Union and building a strong state.
 
The poll may not be all it seems. Alexander Lyubimov, the contest's organiser, has openly encouraged online groups to form and campaign for particular candidates. The contest website www.nameofrussia.ru encourages participants to vote as many times as they like for any of the 50 candidates.
 
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