Throughout his career, Vasilii Nikolaevich Kostianitsyn worked as a portrait artist, a poster artist, a graphic artist, and even as a house painter. He was born into a family of icon painters who lived in a small town located on the right bank of the Volga River in Russia. Early on, Kostianitsyn (whose family name was likely Kostitis and of Latvian heritage) was trained in icon painting by his father and grandfather. Prior to the ...

Gostrudizdat (State Publishing House of Labor Issues) was established around 1924 as Labor Issues Publishing in order to disseminate printed material related to labor. Its office was located in Moscow at 6 Staraia (Old) Square in a building that also housed Moscow's Gorkom (city committee) and Obkom (oblast committee). Dominated by government institutions for decades, Staraia Square at one time contained the offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR.