Beyond the Russian Federation the event was supported by 50 cities and towns. According to the organizers, it is not easy to determine the actual number of participants since many of them test their literacy online, over the Internet.
This year, the representatives of the authorities also wrote the "Total dictation". So, the Advisor to the President of the RF for culture and art Vladimir Tolstoy dictated the text in Yasnaya Polyana, the Deputy Minister of Education of the Saratov region Nadezhda Rukan – in Saratov, the Minister of Education of the Ulyanovsk region Yekaterina Uba – in Ulyanovsk.
Test-cosmonauts and members of the Russian Antarctic expedition also took part in the event.
In London the text was read by journalist Bozena Rynska, in Riga – by journalist Vadim Agapov, in Sidney by – artist Alexander Diamandi. The author of the dictation, Dina Rubina, read her writing in the Novosibirsk State University, where the "Total dictation" actually was born.
The first "Total dictation" event was carried out in 2004 in Novosibirsk. Then, 150 Novosibirsk residents took part in it. The number of the project participants wishing to test their literacy has been growing every year. So, in 2010, 2.4 thousand people wrote the dictation, in 2011 – 4.8 thousand and in 2012 – almost 15 thousand. In previous years, the authors of the dictations were Zakhar Prilepin, Dmitri Bykov and Boris Strugatsky.