MOSCOW, November 28 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld the ruling ordering Russian independent TV channel Dozhd (Rain) to pay 200,000 rubles (about $4,200) in compensation to two seniors from St. Petersburg over a controversial World War II poll, RAPSI reports on Friday from the courtroom.

The poll, which appeared in late January, posed the question of whether Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) should have surrendered to the Nazis in order to avert civilian casualties caused by the subsequent siege. It was removed shortly after the initial appearance but caused an outrage throughout the social media and the Internet.

The channel later explained the incident as a "mistake made by a producer". Despite that, several nationwide cable companies excluded Dozhd from their packages, explaining the move by contract expiration.

In February, Boris Ivchenko, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Union of Senior Citizens, filed a suit against Dozhd seeking 50 million rubles in compensation. The poll has caused emotional distress to thousands of Leningrad Siege survivors, Ivchenko said.

Another plaintiff asked for a compensation amounting to 1 million rubles.

In August, Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky District Court granted the lawsuit.

According to various estimates, Leningrad lost between 600,000 and 1.5 million of its inhabitants from a pre-war population of approximately 2.5 million during the Nazi siege between 1941 to 1944.

A Kremlin commission against the “falsification of history” existed in 2009-2012, and unified guidelines for school history lessons were drafted last year.