The 'greatest Russians'?

• Position: RUSSIA - Brief article

Even though their country is doing well economically, many Russians seem to be nostalgic for the past. When the government started an online contest in June to name "The Greatest Russian," officials were shocked when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Czar Nicholas II surged to the top of the list. Many Russians see Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953, as the man who made their country a world power, even though he also murdered millions of Russians. Nicholas II, the last czar, was long seen as an incompetent whose attempts to hold onto power led to the Russian...