I think it's necessary to highlight the controversies that exist about the project.
First, it is basically a TV show using Internet as a media for collecting votes. Like anything that pays for advertisement, it's bound up with a certain business plan. In this case, it's a good publicity of collateral advertisement. So it look just obvious that the polling staff would tweak the numbers to have at least the top 3 persons they want to see the top 3.
In addition to this, a poor security of the voting resource made it up for a virtual contest of http click bot makers and flash mobbers who caused serious surges of vote count for certain nominated persons several times. This even made the pollers to nullify the result set twice (after Stalin stormed into the first place thanks to a flash mob). Now you can imagine how representative, honest and meaningful such a poll's results can be.
Another thing: 60% of Russians never ever used the Internet. Their activity in the poll was close to zero.
Before blaming Russian citizens as victims of propaganda, think about the BBC mentioning in the headline that Stalin has got the third place in the poll is another example of propaganda. It does not really matter for the BBC readers who've got the first two positions (and few people outside Russia ever know who Alexander Nevsky or Pyotr Stolypin were). But it's really worthy of mentioning the tall rating of Stalin - just to leave a mental mark about Russia and Russians in the readers' minds.
The artificial nature of the top 3 selection is easily revealed if you think about presence of Stolypin among the three. He was a man with big intetntions who only managed to do little before his assassination. How could anyone claim he was one of the most important persons in Russian history? The answer would be: keeping up with the mainstream of the modern Russia's ideologies. The first place is taken by a popular hero whose image is glorified in movies, someone who is a popular picturizer of the ideas of Russian nationalism and, not by a least part, of the Ortodoxal Crhistian Fundamentalism. The second place is occupied by the most prominent representative of Russian State Capitalism. And of course, one should leave an outlet for the most influential opposition force - the Communitst, who were allowed to take the 3rd stair. I believe it mostly worths looking who's below the three partisan positions.
Mind also that this TV contest is not unique, but was particularly arranged in the wake of the similar
100 Greatest Britons and
The Greatest Ukrainians polls. As for me, putting Princess Diana above William Shakespeare is quite laughable and something to roll one's eyes about too. There were also some other poll shows of this kind.
Americans, for instance, nominated Ronald Reagan their greatest one.
Considering the said above, I would disregard the entire affair as a one day sensation.
