A children’s educational quiz «Russian Space» took place at the Vladimir parish of Chemolgan station

29 March 2026, on the 5th Sunday of Great Lent, with the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, the quiz «Russian Space», dedicated to Cosmonautics Day, was held at the parish in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God at Chemolgan station.

The annual intellectual competition for schoolchildren «Russian Space» has been held at the Vladimir Church since 2011. The quiz includes questions on astronomy, tasks on knowledge of constellations and planets of the Solar System, crews of the first Soviet space expeditions, and also features board games with a space theme.

Participants in the event were pupils of Sunday schools of the Alma-Ata diocese.

Before the start of the quiz, a popular science lecture was delivered by the Head of the Laboratory of Physics of Stars and Nebulae of the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute L.I. Shestakova. Lyubov Illarionovna spoke to those gathered about the history of observational astronomy, observatories of Kazakhstan and the most important discoveries made with domestic telescopes.

After that, the schoolchildren competed in knowledge of astronomy, the biography of the first cosmonaut Yu.A. Gagarin, worked on a Russian language task and played board games.

According to the results of the educational quiz, the teams of the Sunday schools of the St John the Theologian Church of Alma-Ata, the Church in honor of Venerable Seraphim of Sarov in the village of Baykent and the Vladimir parish of Chemolgan station were recognized as winners.

Prize places were taken by pupils of parish schools of the Kazan Cathedral of the Southern capital, the Iveron Church of the settlement of Boraldai, the Church of Christ the Savior and the Vladimir Church of the city of Alma-Ata.

The winners and participants of the event were awarded board games and sweet gifts from the Alma-Ata diocesan administration.