Nina Vatolina began producing posters in late 1930s and she went to become one of the leading Soviet poster artists of all time. She was a graduate of the Ogiz Technical School for Arts and of the Moscow Art Institute (class of 1942). Vatolina additionally acquired illustration skills from the master poster designer Viktor Deni. In fact, Deni considered Vatolina one of his most talented students. Vatolina married Viktor Deni’s son, Nikolai Denisov. They attended th...

The Kalinin Poligrafkombinat (printing plant) was located at 5 Lenin Avenue (formerly Voroshilov Street) in the city of Kalinin (Tver) northwest of Moscow. Throughout its existence, the printer was allocated different names depending on the various state-owned trusts that handled its operations. For example, in the mid-1950s to early 1960s, the plant was a contract printer for Sovnarkhoz RSFSR (Regional Council of National Economy of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic). Sovnarkhoz was an economic ...

The history of IzoGiz begins with the formation of Ogiz, the Association of the State Book and Magazine Publishers. In 1930, the Sovnarkom of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic established Ogiz to centralize publishing under a monopoly in order to eliminate duplication of printed material, to streamline and control publishing production and its output, and to create a base for marketing books, training and technical manuals. In 1931, the Central Committee of the USSR ordered certain ...