Glavpolitprosvet (Main Department for Political Education) was created in 1920 and placed under the People's Commissariat of Education (Narkompros). Glavpolitprosvet served as a semi-independent institution that supervised political education. Its chief function was to educate non-Communist Party members and yet its management frequently crossed over into the Party apparatus. Political education was managed via local reading-rooms, lecture halls, social clubs, public libraries ("mass libraries"), movie production and exhibition ("mass cinema"), adult schools, political schools, select universities, and other minor institutions. Glavpolitprosvet staff also published journals and periodicals.

In November 1921, its status was augmented when an Agitprop (Department of Propaganda and Agitation) sector was created within its administration to monitor libraries and institutions of public education. Agitprop oversaw ideological work inside and outside the Party, and it supervised political educational activities in the government, trade unions, cooperatives and other organizations. In 1930, Glavpolitprosvet was reorganized and it lost its semi-independent status when its functions were absorbed into Narkompros.