Geographical Dictation

At the moment, registration of the Geographical Dictation venues continues on the website dictant.rgo.ru. We remind you that any Russian and foreign organizations — schools, universities, libraries, museums, national parks and others — can organize a venue for it.

Among the most unusual venues are the «Akademik Lomonosov» nuclear power barge, the Nizhny Novgorod-Moscow train, the «Cruiser 'Aurora’» museum-ship, the Mission Control Center, oil platforms in the Caspian Sea, and Katun Biosphere Reserve.

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has made adjustments to the format of the event. Nevertheless, 6450 venues in Russia and 111 in foreign countries were registered to participate in it. This is a record number in the entire existence of the Geographical Dictation.

The organizers have developed a new format — remote. The on-site venues made the decision themselves — to carry out the event on-site or remotely, taking into account the orders of the regional Rospotrebnadzor.

Anyone could take the Dictation in an online format. The online Geographical Dictation — 2020 was attended by 200,908 people. This is a record number in the entire existence of the online format of the event.

We remind you that the Geographical Dictation has been held annually since 2015. Participants of the event anonymously answer questions about the geography of Russia. These can be both questions on the knowledge of well-known facts from geography, and tasks requiring the use of creative thinking, logic, deep erudition.

Over five years, more than 1,315,000 people have taken part in the project. From 2015 to 2019, the number of participants in the event has grown six times.

Until 2016 inclusive, the event was held only in Russia, then it entered the international level. In 2019, the number of participating countries amounted to 107 states. The Dictation was held throughout almost entire Europe, in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Nepal, Japan and other countries. The Dictation was taken on all continents except Antarctica, and even in space — on the ISS.

The Dictation venues are traditionally organized in schools, universities, libraries, museums, reserves and many other places. Among the most unusual places where the Dictation was held in different years are the ship-museum «Cruiser 'Aurora’», the Mission Control Center, oil platforms in the Caspian Sea. Over the past five years, the number of venues for the event has grown 26 times — from 210 in 2015 to 5,469 in 2019.

The Geographical Dictation can also be taken online. The online Dictation starts on the website dictant.rgo.ru on the same day as at offline venues, but lasts for several days, so that everyone who wants to have time to test their knowledge can do so.

We would like to note that in 2020, the RGS, for the first time, held a competition for the best Dictation questions. They ended up in the event forms along with questions from eminent experts. It is planned that the competition will continue in the coming years.