Not by real numbers, but by cheating votes: how Alexander Nevsky defeated Joseph Stalin

Sergey Baimukhametov

In May of this year, the country will celebrate the 800th anniversary of the holy blessed prince Alexander Nevsky. In 2008, as a result of a nationwide Internet vote, he was named the winner of the television competition "Name of Russia". However, its results were already in doubt in the process.

The road runs from broad swords

From the slaughter and captivity of Igor,

From the white nights, Malyuta's executioners,

From this melancholy unspoken;

From white priests in the priest's garden,

From a frosty mortal spirit,

From blue daemons stirring in hell

Tsar Ivan the Terrible;

From towers, locks, and ditches, and kremlin,

From the face of the Rublev Trinity.

And there are still no countries on the green earth,

Where could I, like a son, settle down.

And my heart pounding deafly

From birth as a slave sold to it.

I'm scared to say even its' name -

The ferocious name of the homeland.

This is what Vladimir Lugovskoy wrote in 1926. Coincidentally, 1926 is the time when Stalin came to full power in the country.

In the spring of 2008, a large television project “The Name of Russia. Historical choice-2008".

The goal is to elect the protagonist of Russian history. 50 candidates were selected from an initial list of 500 names. By the fall, 12 prominent figures of the past were identified by means of Internet voting, each of whom was dedicated to a separate program.

Online voting began on June 12th.

Here is the rating for July 12, 2008 - for the first month of voting:

In the first place, with a wide margin from everyone else, Stalin.

The second and third places are taken by Vladimir Vysotsky and Lenin.

Further - Nicholas II...

Nobody expected this. Both in Russia and in other countries.

The Los Angeles Times wrote: it is hard to believe that the country that gave the world Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Gogol and Turgenev is rushing between Nicholas II and Stalin in choosing the protagonist of its history. Between the tsar, "whose reign was so catastrophic that it led to a revolution in Russia", and "a psychopathic dictator who killed, expelled and starved millions of his fellow citizens".

London's The Times was also amazed at the choice of the Russians: “Stalin killed 25 million, and sent another 28 million to the Gulag, and the reign of Nicholas II, thanks to his political incompetence, became a real disaster - he allowed two revolutions, lost two wars and eventually lost the throne and his own life. in addition".

“This is the result of the absence of state ideology, a clear position of both the state and the media”, explained Vladimir Lavrov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director of the Institute of Russian History. - A Stalinist film was recently shown on the largest national channel, now the Stalinist textbook is being distributed to schools ( Lavrov was referring to the history textbook, where Stalin is called "the most effective manager" - S.B.) , and the man who called for the transfer of the First World War into civil war, is still in the mausoleum".

The scientist contradicted himself. If a Stalinist film is shown on the largest state television channel, if a Stalinist history textbook is distributed to schools, then there is a state ideology and a clear position of the state. And at the same time, present-day Russia is proclaimed as the heir to the Russian Empire, tsarist Russia. The combination is unimaginable - a two-headed eagle on the coat of arms, the tricolor flag of tsarist Russia and the Stalinist anthem of the USSR. Clear ideological schizophrenia.

The disappointment of the population after the economic cataclysms of the 90s led to massive denial and condemnation of democracy. People thirsted for a "firm hand", "order and justice". As a result, there is a "hand", there is no order and justice.

In their heads - complete devastation, wild porridge. According to polls by sociologists, the majority of Russians are actively in favor of strengthening the role of the state in all spheres. At the same time, the same majority (73%) said in 2008 that they did not feel protected from the arbitrariness of state structures. 62% believed that they could not defend their interests or rights in Russia if they were violated

Most Russians, prompted by television propaganda, regard the Western world as an enemy. At the same time, 63% of Russians with above-average incomes in 2008 wanted their children to study abroad. 35% wanted their children to live abroad permanently. Brains on one side.

We exist in an absurd situation when one and the same historical figure - Stalin - expresses the interests of robbers and robbers, oppressors and oppressed, top and bottom.

Stalin is necessary for the current rulers of Russia, as the air they breathe, and as the ground on which they stand. As long as the majority of the population has Stalin in their heads, there will be no democracy. This is what the authorities and the oligarchy need.

The people, however, hate officials and oligarchs. Says: "Stalin is not on you!" Not realizing that the more he, the people, remembers Stalin and trusts in Stalin, the stronger the power of officials and oligarchs over him.

The people hate officials and oligarchs - and at the same time they respect, envy, want to be in their place.

The people legally demand from the authorities in charge of establishing order, curbing crime, and so on. Not knowing that it is the ruling circles - consciously or intuitively - that are not interested in the present order. After all, the more chaos and lawlessness, the more the population will curse democracy as the source of their current troubles and rely on the authorities. Consequently, the stronger and more durable the power, the greater the income of the clan of officials and billionaires.

Stalin as a pillar of corruption and oligarchic capitalism in Russia - this is not on purpose you can imagine.

Now we are no longer used to it: in 30 years, from 1989 to 2019, Stalin's rating in opinion polls has risen from tenth to first place. In 2019, his role in history was positively assessed by 70% of Russians. And then, in 2008, Stalin's absolute primacy in the "Name of Russia" competition was still shocking. Information appeared in the press: "The site where the name of the main historical hero of Russia is determined was subjected to a massive DDoS attack... Simultaneously with the DDoS attack, a massive vote for Stalin was organized from several Internet resources".

They also talked about the inescapable nostalgia of the older generation for the totalitarian past. However, in 2008 it was difficult to imagine that pensioners-veterans massively owned a computer and did not leave the Web, voting for Stalin. This means that we had the choice of the middle generation and the young tribe.

But if they announced that there are intruders who want to manipulate, then they will be rebuffed and... And they will "make" the result, which is necessary? The credibility of the rating on the site "the Name of Russia" has fallen.

So, before the “measures were taken”, on July 12, Stalin was confidently in the lead. Nicholas II was in fourth place.

Then Nicholas II suddenly came out on top.

In response to the Tsar's unexpected success, some Internet-savvy Russians suggested launching several robotic machines that would win at least ten million votes, for example, for the surgeon Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov.

On August 14, 2008, all results were canceled: they announced that there was a "war of machines", hacker attacks and flash mobs. Voting began anew.

In September, 12 finalists were identified. The first three lines: Alexander Nevsky - Pushkin - Dostoevsky. Tsar Nicholas was not included in the number of finalists. Stalin was in last, 12th place.

On December 11, the first three became: Alexander Nevsky - Peter the First - Stalin.

The people following the process had no doubts about the manipulation. And - in the end result. Inevitably, a suspicion arose, an assumption that they had come to their senses at the top: with Nicholas II, a mistake came out, a historically controversial character, but Alexander Nevsky is an ideal hero. And the fun has begun, the machine began to "work" already in favor of the holy noble prince?

As a result, in the final of voting on December 27-28, 2008, Alexander Nevsky was named "the Name of Russia".

From the editorial board of Novye Izvestia:

This text should by no means be apperceived as an attempt by the author to cast a shadow on Alexander Nevsky. It was exactly the historian and publicist Sergey Baimukhametov who was the first, since the end of the 90s, to restore in a wide information space the true great role and significance of Alexander Nevsky in the history of Medieval Russia. In this article we are talking about the opinion of the people, about manipulating the opinion of the people and Internet voting.