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 Street) was re-named Krasnoproletarskaia (Red Proletarian) Street. The printer retained the Krasnii Proletarii moniker over the following decades even though its management varied under a series of state-owned trusts. In 1949, a new state trust was created to oversee all printing, publishing and book selling. As a result, Ogiz (Association of State Book and Magazine Publishers) -- the entity previously administering state publishing -- was dissolved, and the 3rd Krasnii Proletarii Typography became a contract printer for Glavpoligrafizdat (Main Administration for Matters of Polygraphic Industry Publishing and Book Selling).