October 10, 2017: "Discover Russia. Start from Don" is a thematic writing contest dedicated to Rostov Oblast memorable sights, as well as rich literary heritage of the Don River Area. The contest, organized for the 80th anniversary of Rostov Oblast, is held by "Wikimedia RU".

There are three nominations in the contest:

Nomination #1 - "Read local" - articles in any language, dedicated to life and contributions of classical writers, related to the Don River Area (Chekhov, Sholokhov, Solzhenitsyn, Ranevskaya, Alferaki, Parnakh, Kuindzhi and others), works, films around them, characters and places.

Nomination #2 - articles in any language except Russian, about everything that can be linked to memorable places of Rostov Oblast worthy of special attention, known or famous for something, such as historical heritage sites, places of natural or artistic value. + (Special nomination) - special monetary prizes of 10 000 rubles each to five authors that contribute greatest number of best articles in five official UN languages other than Russian: Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish.

A special nomination is established for "Wikipedia assistants". This is how the contest founders call the authors who will create or organize information sources for Wikipedians, translate from Russian into foreign languages and vice versa previously published texts on the topic of the contest. Based on the sources of information prepared by them, experienced authors will write new articles for the online encyclopedia.

Nomination #3 - "Wikipedia helpers" - Various materials in line with the contest topic published within last three years in publications & media, meeting criteria to be classified as Reliable sources. Reliable sources can also include mass media websites (ex. electronic versions of newspapers), municipality administration, executive and representative government, different educational establishments (and their museums) websites, libraries, clubs, public and private museums, NGO websites as well as publications in printed media (books, journals and magazines, newspapers). See additional information in "Thematic content creation" contest guide rules (in Russian only).

"Baton race" special nomination - "Association of honorary citizens, mentors and talented youth" is offering prize money of 100 000 rubles towards a similar "Discover Russia" writing and photo contest dedicated to memorable places of the region, whose residents will be most active in this contest stage (computed as the share of working-age residents that took part in the contest).

People speaking any languages of the world are invited to tell the whole world about places of interest and famous people of Taganrog and Rostov Oblast and put forward their articles and translations.

Writing contest runs from June 1st through November 15th of year 2017.

For more information, please read go to Wikimedia RU contest page.