All-Russian Olympiad of schoolchildren

The All-Russian Olympiad of schoolchildren (Russian: Всероссийская Олимпиада Школьников(ВСОШ)) is the Russian national system of annual academic subject competitions for schoolchildren in federal, municipal and private schools, organised by the Ministry of Education.

History
Although the first All-Russian Olympiad was organized in 1989, the roots of the olympiad date back to academic competitions of Soviet Union olympiads, which had been organized since the 1930s. Winners and awardees of the final stage of the Olympiad are granted entry into any Russian university, without requisite tests or exams. Winners and awardees of other stages also receive benefits when applying to Russian universities. Some of the competitions originate from the Soviet All-Union olympiads: mathematics (1960s), chemistry (1967), physics (1967), biology (1979).

Structure
The olympiad consists of 24 subjects, and five stages for each subject: preliminary, school, municipal, regional, and federal(final) stage.

The preliminary stage usually takes place in summer. It is done online via the Unified system of registration. This stage is not obligatory, and it is usually used for testing the system.

The school stage is the first obligatory, and second overall phase. Since 2020, in some regions it has been organised online or with the help of school computers. It is overseen by regional departments of the Ministry of Education and Science, and is regionally variable.

Winners and awardees of the school stage are allowed to participate in the third, municipal phase. It is usually done in school, but in some regions, an online form is available.

Following the municipal stage, the fourth regional stage is always held in one location of the respective region. It is organised by the education ministry of this region.

The fifth and final stage is the federal stage, organised by the Ministry of Education, to which only a handful of students progress.

Statistics
According to a Ministry of Education and Science, 20.3 million tests were completed in the school stage (a student can participate in multiple subjects).