Victor Semenovich Klimashin was born in a small village in a rural section of the Saratov region. He studied art in the city of Saratov and after graduation in 1931, he moved to Moscow to work as a professional graphic designer of posters, magazines and books. During World War II, he was drafted for service and in 1943, he was assigned to the Military Artists Studio. It was in the Studio that many of his posters were ...

The Krasnii Proletarii Workshop originated under the ownership of Ivan Kushnerev, a Russian entrepreneur who founded the Kushnerev & Company Printing Shop in 1869 in Moscow. When Kushnerev died in 1896, his printing operation was one of the largest in Imperial Russia. In 1919, the printer was nationalized by the Soviets and consigned to the Printing Section of the Moscow Economic Council (MSNKh).) It later became the 3rd Krasnii Proletarii Book Printing Plant when its location (at 16 Pimenovskaia ...

Iskusstvo was the Art Publishing House (A.K.A. Visual Arts Publishing) that was created in 1936 from Ogiz-Izogiz (State Art and Literature Publishing House). It disseminated books and journals dealing with graphic design and the fine arts, and it issued numerous posters. Since the Iskusstvo banner was part of the State Printing Works in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Moscow, its two main offices were located in those two cities.