Gosizdat was established in Moscow in May 1919 via the merger of the publishing departments of VTsIK (All-Russian Central Executive Committee), the Moscow Soviet, the Petrograd (St. Petersburg) Soviet, the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR, and others. Gosizdat was the first large-scale, state-controlled publisher formed with the purpose of joining the nation's printing and publishing entities under a single institution. While it existed somewhat independent of the government, by 1930 Gosizdat served as the base for the creation of the state publishing conglomerate Ogiz (Association of State Publishing Houses) that united all publishing under state control.