Moscow  - Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator who ordered millions to their death in labor camps, was named as Russia's third- greatest man in history over the weekend.

The "Name of Russia" contest set by state-television channel Rossiya sought to elevate a historical figure from Russia's Tsarist and Soviet period in a bid to build up patriotism.

Local media said a total of one in three Russians, or more than 50 million, voted by telephone, text message and Internet since the campaign kicked-off in June.

Stalin dominated the popularity chart from the start - sparking not just a little controversy and embarrassment to organizers, who are rumoured to have tried to suppress his candidacy by invalidating 1 million Internet votes and changing the voting process mid-course.

A thread on the popular website LiveJournal scoffed at the results of Sunday's vote that had, in first place, 13th-century Prince Alexander Nevsky and, in second, Pyotr Stolypin, a pre-revolution prime minister known for his agrarian reforms and for quashing left- wing protests.

"It's hardly probable that these are the most inspiring figures in Russian history ... rather they were pushed forth for their neutrality," alleged one blogger from the Russian city of Perm.

The two Russian heroes moved up from respective 9th and 29th places in the final round of voting to beat out Stalin by just 5,000 votes. Beloved poet Alexander Pushkin and Tsar Peter the Great filled out the contest's top-five list.

"Thank God that Alexander Nevsky came first," prominent film director Nikita Mikhalkov, one of the competition's judges, sighed after the results came in. "We now have to think very seriously, why the nation chooses to put Josef Vissarionovich Stalin in third place."

Veteran human rights activists, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, who heads the Moscow chapter of the Helsinki group, said disdainfully that the fact of Stalin's inclusion among the 500 figures in the contest at all was a "requiem for humanitarian education."

Stalin's success held another irony. The Soviet leader was Georgian from the town of Gori which was occupied by Russian forces in August after its war with the post-Soviet state.

But even there, a certain respect for the Soviet dictator could be seen as a museum in his honour remained untouched and Russian soldiers snapped pictures with his imposing statue towering over the city's deserted main square.

Russian commentators see the vote for Stalin as a widespread yearning for renewed Russian strength and status on the world scene - but one the country had nothing to be proud of.

"It was a vote for victory and strength ... The country wants to win. The country wants to return to its scale," an editorial in Izvestia wrote arguing the pros the contest.

In contrast, the newspaper uncompromisingly wrote: "There are crimes which don't fade. And we are dealing in this case not with just any crime, but with a genocide against one's own people."

It recalled the tens of millions who died from mass deportations, the network of Gulag labour camps and famine that gripped the nation amid forced collectivization under Stalin's near 30 year rule.

"When people elected the person who bears responsibility for it all, it's a disturbing symptom, and there is exactly nothing to take pride in," the paper opined.

Under former President Vladimir Putin, Russian authorities began moving to rehabilitate the country's Soviet past and gloss over the "bad pages" in its history.

A new education manual for history teachers rationalizes Stalin's crimes as the most effective means towards mass industrialization and education of the peasant populace.

Victory Day celebrations of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany under Stalin's leadership have been resurrected as an all- important national holiday. And the Communist Party, still a national political player, has never stopped idolizing Stalin.

"We wanted to choose the best person, but we voted like always," mourned independent newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta about the outcome of the historical popularity contest. (dpa)