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Comments from an AP history
and government teacher in Raleigh, NC.
e-mail betsynewmark AT gmail.com
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Saturday, December 27, 2008
The greatest Russian
Russia's biggest TV station has been conducting an internet poll to pick the Name of Russia, the greatest hero of Russia. As of now, the standings are:Aleksandr NevskyIt says something about current Russian opinion that Stalin and Lenin are both in the top five. As the BBC details, this is part of a larger trend encouraged by Putin to resurrect Stalin. Perhaps, Aleksandr Nevsky whose story is familiar to many Russians through the famous 1938 Eisenstein film is popular due to his success in fighting the German and Swedish invaders while negotiating tribute to the Golden Horde. Stolypin was a minister under Nicholas II who attempted to appease the peasants through agrarian reforms while suppressing revolutionary movements. Historians debate whether his reforms, if the Tsar had continued to support them would have prevented the Russian Revolution. His assassination in 1911 prevents us from ever answering how he might have preserved the imperial throne during World War One. His inclusion at the top of the list is rather puzzling unless it is a vote for a contrafactual in history that would have prevented both Russia's defeat in World War One and the Russian Revolution.
Petr Stolypin
Josef Stalin
Aleksandr Pushkin
Vladimir Lenin
Aleksandr Suvorov
Dmitry Mendeleev
Petr I
Fedor Dostoevsky
Ivan IV
Catherine II
Aleksandr II
As a student of Russian history and literature, the great Russian poet, Aleksandr Pushkin, seems the obvious choice. At the very least, I'd like to see him beat out Stalin for third place. If you know Russian, you can go vote for Pushkin here though you will have to answer some rather challenging trivia questions on Russian history that might demand a little googling or guesswork to find out the answer. And the server seems quite slow. I'm amazed that Peter the Great isn't doing better and am mystified that Ivan the Terrible is in 10th place.
The winner will be announced on Sunday. Let's hope that the Russians rise above this newfound love for Stalin and choose as wisely as the British who overcame a big push for Princess Diana in order to choose Winston Churchill as the Greatest Briton.
I wonder if some American media outlet tried to put on a Greatest American contest if we'd be as embarrassed by some of the top ten entries. It seems like a natural for the History Channel. Would Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have to hold off a run of votes for Elvis Presley or, worse yet, Kurt Cobain? Or would Barack Obama win by acclamation?
UPDATE: With the voting closed, in a last minute surge, Aleksandr Pushkin pushed back Stalin into third place by a bare 66 votes. Whoo! That's a relief, but a drastic shame that Stalin should today reap so many votes.
UPDATE II: Oops! I don't know what happened, but it must have been a fluke saying that Pushkin edged Stalin out for 3rd place. Unfortunately, Stalin ended up ahead of Pushkin by around 3,000 votes. It's quite disturbing, unless it was just a prank by Russia's version of "Vote for the Worst."Labels: History
4 comments
Comments:
Russia's biggest TV station has been conducting an internet poll to pick the Name of Russia, the greatest hero of Russia. As of now, the standings are:
As a student of Russian history and literature, the great Russian poet, Aleksandr Pushkin, seems the obvious choice. At the very least, I'd like to see him beat out Stalin for third place. If you know Russian, you can go vote for Pushkin here though you will have to answer some rather challenging trivia questions on Russian history that might demand a little googling or guesswork to find out the answer. And the server seems quite slow. I'm amazed that Peter the Great isn't doing better and am mystified that Ivan the Terrible is in 10th place.
The winner will be announced on Sunday. Let's hope that the Russians rise above this newfound love for Stalin and choose as wisely as the British who overcame a big push for Princess Diana in order to choose Winston Churchill as the Greatest Briton.
I wonder if some American media outlet tried to put on a Greatest American contest if we'd be as embarrassed by some of the top ten entries. It seems like a natural for the History Channel. Would Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have to hold off a run of votes for Elvis Presley or, worse yet, Kurt Cobain? Or would Barack Obama win by acclamation?
UPDATE: With the voting closed, in a last minute surge, Aleksandr Pushkin pushed back Stalin into third place by a bare 66 votes. Whoo! That's a relief, but a drastic shame that Stalin should today reap so many votes.
UPDATE II: Oops! I don't know what happened, but it must have been a fluke saying that Pushkin edged Stalin out for 3rd place. Unfortunately, Stalin ended up ahead of Pushkin by around 3,000 votes. It's quite disturbing, unless it was just a prank by Russia's version of "Vote for the Worst."
4 comments
Russia's biggest TV station has been conducting an internet poll to pick the Name of Russia, the greatest hero of Russia. As of now, the standings are:
Aleksandr NevskyIt says something about current Russian opinion that Stalin and Lenin are both in the top five. As the BBC details, this is part of a larger trend encouraged by Putin to resurrect Stalin. Perhaps, Aleksandr Nevsky whose story is familiar to many Russians through the famous 1938 Eisenstein film is popular due to his success in fighting the German and Swedish invaders while negotiating tribute to the Golden Horde. Stolypin was a minister under Nicholas II who attempted to appease the peasants through agrarian reforms while suppressing revolutionary movements. Historians debate whether his reforms, if the Tsar had continued to support them would have prevented the Russian Revolution. His assassination in 1911 prevents us from ever answering how he might have preserved the imperial throne during World War One. His inclusion at the top of the list is rather puzzling unless it is a vote for a contrafactual in history that would have prevented both Russia's defeat in World War One and the Russian Revolution.
Petr Stolypin
Josef Stalin
Aleksandr Pushkin
Vladimir Lenin
Aleksandr Suvorov
Dmitry Mendeleev
Petr I
Fedor Dostoevsky
Ivan IV
Catherine II
Aleksandr II
As a student of Russian history and literature, the great Russian poet, Aleksandr Pushkin, seems the obvious choice. At the very least, I'd like to see him beat out Stalin for third place. If you know Russian, you can go vote for Pushkin here though you will have to answer some rather challenging trivia questions on Russian history that might demand a little googling or guesswork to find out the answer. And the server seems quite slow. I'm amazed that Peter the Great isn't doing better and am mystified that Ivan the Terrible is in 10th place.
The winner will be announced on Sunday. Let's hope that the Russians rise above this newfound love for Stalin and choose as wisely as the British who overcame a big push for Princess Diana in order to choose Winston Churchill as the Greatest Briton.
I wonder if some American media outlet tried to put on a Greatest American contest if we'd be as embarrassed by some of the top ten entries. It seems like a natural for the History Channel. Would Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have to hold off a run of votes for Elvis Presley or, worse yet, Kurt Cobain? Or would Barack Obama win by acclamation?
UPDATE: With the voting closed, in a last minute surge, Aleksandr Pushkin pushed back Stalin into third place by a bare 66 votes. Whoo! That's a relief, but a drastic shame that Stalin should today reap so many votes.
UPDATE II: Oops! I don't know what happened, but it must have been a fluke saying that Pushkin edged Stalin out for 3rd place. Unfortunately, Stalin ended up ahead of Pushkin by around 3,000 votes. It's quite disturbing, unless it was just a prank by Russia's version of "Vote for the Worst."
Labels: History
Comments:
I'm surprised, with no snark intended, that the greatest Russian hero of the 20th and probably the 21st century was not even on the list. The man whose design has killed more than 15 times as many people as the combined bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the most succesful tool of Russian foreign policy. The inventor of the AK 47, Mikhail Kalashnikov.
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