The Independent carries this today:
A competition has been launched to find the “Name of Russia” – one Russian from history who should go down as a national symbol and the nation's biggest hero. Joseph Stalin, despite being one of the most vicious tyrants of the 20th century (and an ethnic Georgian), makes it on to the initial long list of 500 names, and is expected to garner a fair few votes.
Since Winston Churchill won the BBC's Great Britons series, other countries have thought that the concept is a rather good idea. But while the German broadcaster ZDF has said that Adolf Hitler and all other Nazi leaders will be barred from running in the “Our Best” series due to start soon, the Russian version includes Stalin and several other Bolsheviks involved in the Great Terror in its long list . . . [Read the rest of the story]