MOSCOW - A DOZEN gigantic billboards of wartime leader Joseph Stalin have appeared on the streets of a provincial Russian city ahead of his 130th birthday, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

'130 years since the birth of J.V. Stalin. 1879-2009. The victory will be ours!' proclaimed the posters in the southwestern city of Voronezh, pictures published by the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily showed.

The paper said 10 such posters, measuring three by six metres, had been put on billboards in the city by the local Communist Party.

Stalin, whose birthday is not until December, appears in his military uniform against the the backdrop of a Soviet flag.

Local Communist party official Sergei Rudakov told the newspaper that the party had managed to put up the posters even though several local advertising agencies had refused to carry out their order.

Despite being blamed for the deaths of millions of people through purges and forced collectivizations under his rule, Stalin remains a hero for many Russians for his role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.

The Georgian-born dictator came third in a nationwide poll last year to find Russia's greatest ever personality. -- AFP