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MOSCOW — Ninety years after he was slain, Czar Nicholas II is leading a tight race to be named the greatest Russian in history.
His closest competitors? Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state that killed the last czar and his entire family.
The contest, sponsored by state-owned Rossiya television, is a Russian version of the 2002 BBC show Great Britons, which was won by Winston Churchill.
A U.S. version in 2005 declared Ronald Reagan, the former president who had died the year before, to be the “Greatest American.”
Rossiya TV is running a poll on who the greatest Russian was. Currently Czar Nicholas II leads Joseph Stalin, lower left, and Vladimir Lenin.
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By Friday lunchtime, the last czar 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. Czars Peter I and Catherine the Great feature in the top 10, along with crusading medieval prince Alexander Nevsky. Ivan the Terrible, who murdered his own son, is in 12th place.
Until recently, Stalin was dominating the poll, despite his political purges that sent millions of his countrymen to their deaths. But as the anniversary of the July 18, 1918, assassination of the whole imperial family approaches, monarchists have been rallying support for the czar.
The Internet poll allows for multiple voting and thus can be easily swayed.
The top 12 vote-getters are to be discussed in televised debates in September, with one figure then chosen the “Name of Russia.”
The top 12 now includes other former leaders: Peter the Great (No. 5), Catherine the Great (No. 7), Boris Yeltsin (No. 11) and Ivan the Terrible (No. 12).
Vladimir Putin, the extremely popular former president who is now prime minister, did not qualify for the contest because he is still alive.
He may, however, have given a boost to Stalin's candidacy. In helping to restore Russians' pride in their Soviet-era history, Mr. Putin's Kremlin played up Stalin's role in building a strong state while glossing over his bloody rule.
If Russians tire of the virtual political battle shaping up between the monarchists and Communists, they could always throw their Internet vote behind the fourth name on the list: Vladimir Vysotsky, a beloved actor and singer who died in 1980.
