In 1914, on the instructions of Russian Committee on the Exploration of the Central and East Asia, he collected folklore in Tattinsky Ulus, Yakutia.

Novgorodov's arguments were these: The main difficulty was caused by numerous umlauts and brevity and duration signs.

His The Main Problems of Yakut Intelligentsia was published in Yakutskie Vedomosti newspaper.

As he studied Mongolian, he fluently spoke Buryat language and participated in local meetings.

In March 1919 he published several articles where he argued for a chair of Yakutology in Irkutsk University and noted to the similarity of modern Yakut and ancient Turkic, found in Orkhon inscriptions.

In September 1919 Novgorodov reached Yakutsk and joined the Saqa aymaq cultural society.

As the Kolchak government didn't support his ideas, he was pleased with the return of Soviet power.

In 1923–24 the primer was spread all over Yakutia and likbezy (special schools for illiterates) started their work.

As new presses appeared in the republic, it became possible for the local leaders to print their own newspapers and the first of these, kɯ:m, was published in 1923.

Until 1930, when Yakut was switched to Jaꞑalif, more than 200 books were published in the Novgorodov alphabet, including 30 schoolbooks.

In 1922 Novgorodov graduated the university and along with M. K. Ammosov represented Yakutia in Narkomnats (Peoples' Committee for Nationalities).