The 1st Exemplary Typography Workshop was named in honor of Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov (1896-1948), a Soviet military leader and a senior member of the Politburo who died in 1948. Reportedly, Andrei Zhdanov controlled the atomic espionage division of the USSR and he was Josef Stalin's closest confidant.

Historically, the 1st Exemplary Typography Workshop began as the Sharapov-Sytin Partnerhip, a printing workshop formed before the Russian Revolution. Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin (1851-1934) was the son of a peasant. He opened a small print shop in Moscow using a single press and by the start of the 20th century; Sytin's printing business (at Valovaia and Piatnitskaia streets) was the largest private printing company in tsarist Russia. In late 1918, the Bolsheviks commandeered the Royal Print Yard and around May 1919, they nationalized Sytin's printing business making it the "1st Typo-lithography Workshop". It was from then-on owned by the state. The 1st Typo-lithography served as a contract printer for Gosizdat (state publishing) until 1930 when it was placed under Ogiz (Association of State Book and Magazine Publishers) of the Poligrafkniga Trust. After WWII (and immediately prior to using Zhdanov's name in its title), the 1st Exemplary printed jobs for Glavizdat (Main Administration of Publishing Houses, Printing Industry and Book Trade).

During the post WWII-era, three different printing trusts managed the 1st Exemplary: Glavpoligrafprom (Main Directorate of the Printing Industry), Glavpoligrafizdat (Main Administration for Matters of Polygraphic Industry Publishing and Book Selling) that was created in 1949 and, Soiuzpoligrafprom (All-Union Association of Printing Enterprises).