MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 scientific expedition will begin working in the Irkutsk Region in June, where they will bring new Literary Reading textbooks to Tofalars - a small-numbered people living in the region's mountainous districts, the expedition said.

"In June 2024, the Russian Academy of Sciences' expedition Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 will begin working in the Irkutsk Region. The expedition will bring gifts to the Irkutsk Region. New textbooks already have been printed in the language of the Tofalar people living in the region's mountainous districts. Right now, scientists say, the native Tofalar language is taught at two educational institutions, and Literary Reading in Tofalar is not taught at all," the expedition said.

According to Olesya Polunina, leader of the Expedition for Books project, in the 1980s, scientists Valentin Rassadin and Vadim Shibkeev wrote Literary Reading textbooks. The books have been published once again now, and the Russian Academy of Sciences has approved them.

"Sergei Mikhalkov, Nikolai Nosov, Samuil Marshak (very popular Soviet writers - TASS) cannot be deleted from children's literature simply because they worked in the Stalin era. Likewise is the approach to the Literary Reading in Tofalar. It is quite modern, as it has been compiled by teachers, not by political strategists," the expert stressed.

About the expedition

The Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 is the largest expedition in terms of the number of participants among continental high-latitude scientific expeditions in the entire history of the North's studies. It kicked off from Murmansk in August, 2023, and over one year its 700 participants from more than 20 centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences and from federal universities will conduct 200 studies on routes stretching for 12,000 kilometers. The expedition participants will also test Russian equipment, communications equipment, and insulation materials under a program to replace earlier imported goods for the country's Arctic Zone.

The expedition's main part is working now in Yakutia's north, and a vehicle testing group is about to wrap up tests of two Arhant snowmobile models and continues testing an Arctic-version all-terrain vehicle based on URSA-Motors.