RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. A state TV contest to name the most popular Russians in history ended this week with 50 million votes cast and Josef Stalin near the top. First place went to a medieval prince who fended off European invaders. Second place, a Czarist prime minister who fended off revolutionaries. Stalin - despite gulags, famines, and purges that killed millions - came in third, ahead of Ivan the Terrible, Lenin and Dostoevsky. It's Morning Edition. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.