The Mospoligraf 15th Lithography Workshop was located at 23 Bol'shaia Sadovaia Street in Moscow. Its history begins with Ivan Mikhailovich Mashistov (1851-1914) the founder and managing director of Mashistov Typolithography Partnership. His firm printed magazines, historical books, and during the First World War, it printed and published patriotic posters. Under the Soviets, Mashistov Lithography was nationalized and it became the 15th Lithographic Workshop. In 1921, when the Soviet Union consolidated its largest and best printing operations into state-owned trusts, the 15th Lithography Workshop was placed under the management of Mospoligraf, the second-largest Moscow printing trust outside of Mospechat’ (Moscow Printing) trust. Over the years, the 15th Lithography Workshop served as a contract printer for the MGSNKh (Moscow City Council of National Economy) and for the periodical Rabochee Delo (The Worker's Cause).