On 16-17 November, our country hosted the 10th (anniversary) International Educational Campaign ‘Geographical Dictant’. 

It has been organised by the Russian Geographical Society since 2015 on the initiative of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Since 2021, the action covers all continents, including Antarctica. The geographical dictation is written on land, on water and even in space. 

Tula State University has been taking part in the action since 2017. 

At our university, the love for geography unites people of different age categories and professions. All of them are driven by interest, passion and willingness to add new knowledge about Russia to their piggy bank.This year was no exception.

On November 16, the Institute of Law and Management traditionally became the organiser of the Geographical Dictation. Tula State University students, schoolchildren, pensioners, and working residents of Tula gathered here together.

Yulia Zemenkova, a first-year student of Economics, despite her young age, is already rightly considered a veteran of this movement. She took part in the International educational action ‘Geographical Dictant’ when she was still at school. And regularly. 

- I was very interested, and, of course, I wanted to test myself. I went to university and decided to continue the tradition, she said. - It's so great to test your strength and learn useful information!

Astronauts on the International Space Station are active participants of the event. This dictation has already become the seventh one for them. Before the beginning of the action they addressed all the participants with a video message. All those who came to Tula State University on that day were also captivated by their enthusiasm.

The main part of the dictation was preceded by a warm-up quiz of 3 questions. 

The dictation itself included 40 questions prepared by both scientists and experts and amateur authors as part of the "Write your own question for the Geographical Dictation" contest. 

The tasks were devoted to Russia's geography, history of its territories, cultural and economic aspects. In this regard, it is important to note that in the year 2024, declared by the President of the Russian Federation as the Year of the Family, the Russian Geographical Society launched a family question contest "Write a question with the whole family". 

The winners were awarded with commemorative prizes from the Russian Geographical Society and invited to participate in the Central Site in Moscow.

The issues of the anniversary action were voiced by Maria Aronova, theatre and cinema actress, People's Artist of Russia, journalist, writer-essayist and general director of the Leo Tolstoy State Museum in Moscow, great grandson of Leo Tolstoy Vladimir Tolstoy. 

And also... Russian opera and chamber singer Fyodor Chaliapin, Russian poet and writer Sergey Esenin and the great Russian writer and thinker Leo Tolstoy. Their voices were synthesised using artificial intelligence. 

The participants worked for 45 minutes. They will be able to find out the results by their unique identification numbers at the website of the Geographical Dictantdistant.rgo.ru, as well as by scanning the QR code located on the note form.

The results of the dictation will be known from 12 December. 

- It is hard to overestimate the importance of the International Geographical Dictation! Undoubtedly, it unites people who strive for a deeper understanding of their country, - said Elena Belskaya, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Finance and Management Department of the Institute of Law and Management. - And for students it is a great opportunity to learn something new, one more serious step on the way of self-education. They will definitely be able to apply the acquired knowledge in their future professional activities.         

Tatyana Krikunkova

Photographs by Ilya Khodakovskiy