Geographical Dictation-2021 was held in Russia and 106 other countries on November 14. The headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) has become the central platform for voluntary testing of knowledge about the Earth and home country. On the initiative of the Russian Geographical Society, by the way, the dictation is being held. Russian Defense Minister and President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Shoigu, Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense, chief editor of MK Pavel Gusev, winners of geographical Olympiads among students and schoolchildren, famous scientists and public figures came here for the “exam”. The MK correspondent looked at how everything went and found out if anyone had used cheat sheets.
The idea to popularize knowledge about the native country in the form of a Geographical Dictation was proposed by the President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Shoigu. In principle, the idea is clear: well, a person who loves his homeland cannot but be interested in its nature, history, sights. Without this knowledge, a real patriot cannot be brought up.
At the central site, at the headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society, the dictation questions (a minute was given to answer each question) were announced by singer Pelageya, TV presenter Leonid Yakubovich, press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov.
While some of the questions could be answered with simple logic, most required a solid knowledge of geography. That is why prompts were given for some of the questions. In the question about the city on the island of Sicily, the presenter, in front of everyone, called three out of four answers wrong, and refused to name the correct one with a laugh.
After reading one of the questions, in which it was necessary to indicate the name of the peninsula, Pelageya decided to sing the song “Farewell, rocky mountains”:
“And the waves both moan and cry,
And splash against the side of the ship …
Melted in a distant fog “…”
Our dear land ”.
As a result, the answer could be easily guessed, since only one option corresponded to the rhyme – the Rybachiy Peninsula.
Thanks to the positive attitude of the organizers, the dictation took place in a comfortable atmosphere, although some questions were puzzling.
One of the most interesting questions was: “There are cities in Russia that have been assigned federal status: Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol. But there is one more city of federal significance leased by Russia until 2050 ”.
The correct answer to this difficult question is the city of Baikonur, which the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with the cosmodrome of the same name, temporarily leased to the Russian Federation.
Before the start of the dictation, Sergei Shoigu said that the citizens of the state, which is the discoverer of Antarctica and the Northern Sea Route, are ashamed not to know the geography of their country.
And Sergei Shoigu, in absentia, turned to the rectors of Russian universities with a proposal to include geography in the entrance examinations for his entrants. “I suggest that university rectors include this subject in the entrance examinations, and applicants should not be afraid to take it,” he suggested.
Shoigu, by the way, said that two weeks ago, the Lomonosov Moscow State University had already decided to pass the entrance test in geography at 11 faculties. Until then, this norm was accepted only at one faculty.
Sergei Shoigu presented the best geographers of Russia with diplomas of honorary titles “Honored Geographer of the Russian Federation”. Summing up the results of the dictation, Shoigu thanked all the participants and expressed the hope that next year there will be another record both in the number of venues and in the number of participants. “And the most important thing is based on people’s interest in studying our country,” said the President of the Russian Geographical Society.
By the way, the Russian military department is perhaps the most massive participant in the Geographical Dictation. The National Center for Defense Management has become the central platform in the Ministry of Defense. In total, the military department had more than 1.5 thousand sites for writing dictation – from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka.
The Russian Defense Ministry has established a Project Development Center for the Russian Geographical Society. As the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Nikolai Pankov said, the Center was created with the aim of supporting the desire of servicemen to learn about Russia and its natural resources.
