Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana took part in the all-Russia census on Saturday.
"Census is an important and nationwide matter," Medvedev said and shared his experience of working as a census taker in Leningrad (the Soviet name for St. Petersburg).
"It was in 1989, the last census of the Soviet period," the president said adding that sometimes people refused to open the door and answer his questions.
He said he was a post-graduate student at that time and "a persistent man", had more free time and finally managed to collect information about all people who lived in the house he was responsible for.
Medvedev wished Anastasia Fyodorova, his census-collector, to be as persistent as he had been, and presented her with a pen.
Fyodorova told the president that a modern census taker works from 9.00 a.m. till 7.00-9.00 p.m. and should always have an ID, a special bag, a flashlight, a whistle and a blue scarf with the census logo.
The all-Russia census, the second since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, will take place on October 14-25. Its cost is estimated at some 17 billion rubles ($).
Some 616,000 census takers are to be employed all across Russia, with an average monthly wage of some 5,500 rubles ($183). All of them are insured, and will receive up to 20,000 rubles ($667) in compensation if injured during their work.
During the previous census in 2002 some 500 injuries involving census takers were registered, with almost 70% of them resulting from dog attacks.
GORKI (Moscow Region), October 16 (RIA Novosti)
