On November 29, the Geographical Dictation of the Russian Geographical Society was held for the sixth time. 6450 venues in Russia and 111 venues in foreign countries have registered to participate in the Dictation. This is a record number in the entire existence of the event – last year there were 5469 venues.
The central venue of the event operated at the Moscow Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society, where 6179 people wrote the dictation remotely. In addition, a closed in-person venue operated at the Society's Headquarters. Here, the President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergey Shoigu and journalists covering the projects of the Society took part in the Dictation.
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Before the start of the event, Sergei Shoigu thanked its participants for the fact that, despite the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, they did not lose their desire to take part in the Dictation. The President of the Russian Geographical Society also emphasized that more and more residents of foreign countries were interested in the history of Russia thanks to the Geographical Dictation.
"We have reached serious numbers. When we started, we had about 200 venues within our country; today it is almost 6,500 venues. 111 countries are taking the Dictation simultaneously with us," Sergei Shoigu noted. “You know that every year we sum up the results – people’s knowledge of geography is improving in our country; more countries know about our country. We have several indicators by which we assess how many more people in the world have become interested not only in the geography of our country, but, through it, in our country as a whole, its history, its nature, its people.”
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Note that in connection with the pandemic in 2020, the organizers of the event have developed a new format – remote. The on-site venues made the decision whether to conduct the event in-person or remotely themselves, taking into account the orders of the regional Rospotrebnadzor.
The participants of the remote version, who registered at a particular venue, were sent a link with a video greeting by the event’s moderator Yana Churikova and questions voiced by musician, People's Artist of Russia Nikolai Rastorguev, travel TV presenter of the “My Planet” channel Anton Zaitsev and film actress Agnia Ditkovskite.
In 2020, the majority of the questions was developed by the player of the intellectual club "What? Where? When?", the owner of the "Crystal Owl" Rovshan Askerov. In addition, for the first time in the entire history of the event, the tasks included questions written by ordinary people – the winners of the Russian Geographical Society’s competition "Write a question for the Geographical Dictation".
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After the event, at the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society, Sergei Shoigu answered questions from journalists about the current work of the Russian Geographical Society. The President of the Russian Geographical Society said that, despite the difficult epidemiological situation, the Society intended to continue its expeditions.
“We started a lot – a lot needs to be completed. We have a lot of ideas and a lot of things to do. And it is very important to finish everything,” Sergei Shoigu said.
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In particular, the President of the Russian Geographical Society noted that further research is required in Kamchatka, where dead sea animals were found in the Avacha Bay in the fall. A scientific group of the Russian Geographical Society worked on the peninsula, and came to the conclusion that the most likely cause of the death of flora and fauna is oxygen starvation caused by the massive growth of microalgae in September 2020.
"Although during this time we have studied the entire coastline, all possible and impossible factors that could have affected this, the research needs to be continued - there are many incomprehensible things. The work will take another two or three years," Sergei Shoigu stressed.
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Speaking about the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Sergei Shoigu reminded about the "Armenia" motor ship discovered by the expedition of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society. The ship was sunk in 1941 by German aircraft off the coast of Crimea. According to various estimates, there were from 4.5 thousand to 10 thousand people on board. According to the President of the Russian Geographical Society, the ship wreck is one of the many episodes of the war, which must be remembered and told.
At the end of the event, Sergei Shoigu presented certificates of honor to journalists who have been covering various projects of the Society for several years. Among the awardees were Nikolai Tabashnikov, editor-in-chief of the “My Planet” TV channel; Yevgeny Sazonov, editor-in-chief of the “Komsomolskaya Pravda” newspaper; Vitaly Kadchenko, head of the Crimean Bureau of Channel One; and other representatives of the Russian media.
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We would like to remind you, that on November 29 at 14:00 Moscow time, the online version of the Geographical Dictation was launched. The online Dictation is available at dic.rgo.ru for a whole week – until 14:00 on December 6 (Moscow time). You can take the Dictation in 11 languages: Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese and Hindi.
The participants of the online Dictation will see their results immediately after finishing it. Your score – for both the in-person and remote versions – can be found from January 15, 2021 on the event’s website dictant.rgo.ru.