Total Dictation Was Written in the Air and Underground

18 April 2016

In 2016, 150,000 people from 68 countries took part in the Total Dictation.

Residents of more than 732 towns and villages checked their knowledge of the Russian language. 480 of them are located in Russia, 252 – abroad (twice as many as last year). For the number of towns participating in the Dictation, the USA is in first place (16) followed by Spain (13) and China (9).

For the first time, Japan, Brazil and South Africa joined in. In Johannesburg 36 people came to the only Russian orthodox church in South Africa to write the dictation.

The headquarters of the Dictation is located in Novosibirsk State University. It was here that in the beginning of the 2000s the idea to organize a global dictation was born.

Participants could write the Dictation online and at special locations: schools, libraries and universities. In Moscow the text was read by celebrities: popular artists, musicians, TV personalities and public officials. Dmitry Livanov – Minister of Education and Science of Russia – read the Dictation in the Moscow Teaching University.

This year, the Dictation was written in some truly unexpected places: on board an airplane, at an Arctic exploration station, in a Kungur ice cave, on the bank of Lake Baikal and even in the State Duma.

The organizers are promising to publish the results on the website totaldict.ru once everyone’s work has been checked. If you missed the Dictation this year, you will have your chance next year. In the meantime, you can check how well you know Russian on our website.