Penza, 4 October 2016. PenzaNews. All-Russian action “Big ethnographic dictation” was held in Penza on Tuesday, October 4.

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Volunteers aged over 15 years old had an opportunity to test their knowledge in the Penza socio-pedagogical college or historical-philological faculty of Belinsky Pedagogical Institute of PSU.

Before the test in college, editor of TRC “Express” Pavel Prokhorenkov offered the audience to admit that they know little about the peoples of the Russian Federation, noting that such a conclusion is already the beginning of the correction of this error.

“I think that the most important result is not the number of points, not an honorary diploma, but perhaps the most important result is to learn some interesting new facts, which were left aside in the hectic life,” he said.

The participants received two papers. One of them contained questions and answers to choose from, this paper was supposed to be handed upon completion. The second paper could be used to duplicate answers for self-examination — on November 4, the website of the “Big ethnographic dictation” will publish the correct answers for everyone to be able to compare them with their own, as well as see the overall results of the test.

According to the coordinator of the “Big ethnographic dictation,” Director of the Center of Humanitarian Education of the Regional Development Institute in the Penza region Elena Firsova, the event was a “pen test” to show the knowledge of the Russians on issues related to demography and ethnography, as well as the culture and life of the people living on the territory of the Russian Federation.

“The event is held for the first time in Russia. It is intended to attract young people, to ensure that they know as much as possible about multi-ethnic composition of the Russian Federation, about the inter-ethnic harmony, and what a multi-ethnic culture is, in order to ensure the inter-ethnic dialogue in our multinational country,” she said.

According to Elena Firsova, in PSU, in addition to school and college students, the ethnographic dictation was written by representatives of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region, various ministries, as well as youth organizations.