Russian entrepreneur Ivan Kushnerev founded the Ivan Kushnerev & Company Printing Shop in 1869 in Moscow. Having tried his hand at publishing, Kushnerev turned to printing and opened a small shop “with a dozen workers, one hand press, and a single printing machine.” In 1903, the shop acquired Moscow’s first Linotype press. As his business grew, he brought-in partners, and when Kushnerev died in 1896, his printing company was one of the largest in Imperial Russia. In 1919, the Kushnerev shop was nationalized by the Soviets and consigned to the printing section of MSNKh (Moscow Economic Council). The printer was thereafter placed under the Poligrafkiniga (Book and Magazine Printing) Trust and renamed the 3rd State Typolithography Workshop. By 1921, it was briefly re-named the 20th State Typolithography Workshop, and subsequently it became the 3rd Krasnii Proletarii Book Printing Plant when its location (on Pimenovskaia Street) was re-named Krasnoproletarskaia (Red Proletarian Street). By late 1924, the 3rd Krasnii Proletarii came under the management of Gosizdat (State Publishing House). The printer retained the Krasnii Proletarii moniker while its management (via a series of state trusts) varied over the next fifty years.