There are no bad grades for the Geographical Dictation. This is not a test paper, like at school. Participants come together to test their knowledge of geography and get to know Russia better. Once more, the discoveries were made on November 19, when the Russian Geographical Society held the Geographical Dictation for the ninth time. The central venue was Lomonosov Moscow State University.
The large-scale international educational campaign happened on all continents of the globe, including Antarctica. The Dictation was taken even by cosmonauts who are currently in near-Earth orbit: Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Konstantin Borisov. In total, 10,625 venues were registered in 110 countries, including Russia. Since 2015, when the Geographical Dictation was held for the first time, more than three million people took part in it.
Nikolay Sergeevich Kasimov, Chairman of the Moscow City Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, First Vice-President and Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Russian Geographical Society, President of the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow
The most interesting thing in the Geographical Dictation is the questions: unusual, complex, sometimes ironic, but always outstanding and memorable. It is they who arouse interest in geography, in history. At the same time, the questions are the most difficult thing in the Dictation. After all, each of them should contain a geographical component and an unusual logical twist. However, anyone who is just interested in geography can come up with a question.
Ilya Gurov, First Deputy Executive Director of the Russian Geographical Society, told about how the questions for the Geographical Dictation are created. Photo: Anna Yurgenson / RGS press service.
Every year, the RGS holds a contest for the best question for the Geographical Dictation. This year, 461 questions were received from 67 regions of Russia, as well as 12 questions from six foreign countries: Belarus, Lebanon, Germany, Moldova, Mongolia, India.
Among all the participants, the authors of the five most interesting questions were selected. At the central venue of the Geographical Dictation, Lomonosov Moscow State University, an award ceremony was held for one of the winners: Arina Zaikina from Volgograd.
The legendary polymath Anatoly Wasserman took part in the Geographical Dictation. Dmitry Kharatyan, actor of theater, cinema, television, and dubbing, TV presenter, film producer, People's Artist of Russia, reached out to him for comment. Photo: Anna Yurg
Three winners of the contest were also awarded. One of them was Roy Sanjib Dutta from Patna, India. And he came to Moscow to participate in the Geographical Dictation in person!
The Geographical Dictation is taken all over the world, so the contest for the best question is held not only in Russia, but also abroad. The question that Roy Sanjib Dutta came up with was included in the foreign version of the Geographical Dictation, which has been translated into five languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish.
Roy Sanjib Dutta from Patna, India, became the winner of the international contest "Write Your Question for the Geographical Dictation". Photo: Anna Yurgenson / RGS press service.
An important advantage of the Geographical Dictation is that you can participate in it anonymously and tell only about excellent results. In 2022, there were 2,433 such excellent students.
Six of them came to the central venue to take part in the Dictation: Alina Klimenkova from Moscow, Elena Ermolenko from Donetsk (DPR), Tatiana Fedorova from St. Petersburg, Tatiana Gofman from Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Nikita Sartakov from Biysk (Altai Territory), Anton Voznyuk from Krasnoyarsk.
A festive, friendly, inspiring atmosphere prevailed in the auditorium of Lomonosov Moscow State University, which acted as the central venue for the Geographical Dictation in 2023.
The excellent students of 2022 came to the central venue at Lomonosov Moscow State University to take part in the Dictation. Photo: Anna Yurgenson / RGS press service.
The speeches by Nikolay Kasimov, Chairman of the Moscow City Branch of the Russian Geographical Society First Vice-President and Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Russian Geographical Society, President of the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as Ilya Gurov, First Deputy Executive Director of the Russian Geographical Society, certainly contributed to this. Their fascinating stories about geography inspired the participants of the Dictation to study not only our country, but also the whole world.
At the desks in the audience, you could see the players of the popular TV program “Chto? Gde? Kogda?" (eng. “What? Where? When?”) and "Svoya Igra" (eng. “Our Game”), including the legendary Anatoly Wasserman, and feel like a member of the intellectual club of experts.
Finally, the participants of the Geographical Dictation were greatly impressed by the magnificent duo of spectacular presenters: Dmitry Kharatyan, an actor of theater, cinema, television, dubbing, TV presenter, film producer, People's Artist of Russia, and Anastasia Chernobrovina, Adviser to the President of the Russian Geographical Society on Information Policy.
The presenters of the Geographical Dictation of 2023: Dmitry Kharatyan, actor of theater, cinema, television, dubbing, TV presenter, film producer, People's Artist of Russia, and Anastasia Chernobrovina, Advisor to the President of the Russian Geographica
The love of geography, history, culture; the love of knowledge and the love of our country – all this unites people who participate in the Geographical Dictation and inspire others to join. There are only 40 questions every year, but the number of like-minded people is already several million.
The Extra Version of the Geographical Dictation is going to be available from November 19 (14:00 Moscow time) to December 1, 2023 (14:00 Moscow time) and can be found here.
The answers to the questions will be available from December 10 on our website dictant.rgo.ru .
Individual results will be available from December 12, on the website dictant.rgo.ru .