On April 26, the students, the staff, and the rector’s office of SSU took part in an international historical project – they wrote a dictation on the events of the Great Patriotic War. The students, the staff, and the guests of the university were able to test their knowledge and recall how the country fought for the Victory.

The rector’s office the university came to the main dictation site in SSU Bldg. 8, namely Rector Alexei Chumachenko, the vice-rectors Alexei Koronovskii, Sergei Mukhoyed, Olga Nesterova, Head of Priority Projects and Programmes Elena Yelina, and Head of the Office for Education Sergei Udalov. In his welcoming speech, Alexei Chumachenko noted the special importance of such actions.

‘The historical memory of the Great Patriotic War should be given to younger generations. It is important that the understanding and value of the heroic deed resound in the hearts of the younger generation as it sounds in the hearts of people who have experienced these events. To love a country, you need to know it well.’

The central site of the Victory Dictation was organised at the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. The online broadcast from the opening ceremony was seen by the participants of the project at Saratov State University: in Bldg. 8 (Room 420), Bldg. 9 (Room 401), Bldg. 10 (the SSU History Museum), Bldg. 12 (Room 610), in the library of the College of Radioelectronics, Geology College, at Balashov Institute, and at the multiform site of the student brigades.

Chair of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. He marked that almost 28 thousand sites for international testing had been organised in 89 regions of Russia. The Victory Dictation had been written by compatriots in 60 countries. According to the preliminary data, more than 2 million people have taken part in the project.

Dmitrii Medvedev, Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, noted the importance of conducting an international historical dictation.

‘We are writing this dictation not for the sake of evaluation, but at the behest of the soul, with pride and immense gratitude to the heroes of those years. Each of the hundreds of thousands of participants in the Victory Dictation stands in a single line with their loved ones, with the older generation, with those who went into battle for their Homeland and worked in the home front, spared nothing, even their own lives, for our free and peaceful future.’

Chair of the Russian Historical Society Sergei Naryshkin, Russian Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, Head of The Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation Evgenii Primakov, Hero of the Russian Federation Alexander Beloglazov, and People's Artist of the Russian Federation Vladimir Mashkov addressed the participants of the Victory Dictation. Thanks to the direct inclusion, the participants of the venues from different parts of the country and the world congratulated the country on the upcoming Victory Day. They were joined by soldiers of the operational brigade of the North Caucasus District of the Russian National Guard Troops, as well as cosmonauts from the ISS. At the end of the opening, the dictation members sand the song Katyusha together.

The dictation was launched by Nikolai Imchuk, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War.

‘Victory Day is coming, we must meet it with dignity! Thank you for preserving the memory of the Great Patriotic War, our history.’

In 45 minutes, the participants were asked to solve 25 tasks. You can find the results of the Victory Dictation on the диктантпобеды.рф the Russian Federation by an individual identification number.

The project is held to attract the public to the study of the history of the Great Patriotic War and to improve historical literacy. Today, the St. George’s Ribbon project has also started throughout Russia and abroad. During the registration, volunteers gave each participant of the Victory Dictation a ribbon and a memo on how to wear it correctly.