The State Publishing House had its origins in Imperial Russia as the Royal Print Yard in St. Petersburg. After the Soviets nationalized the print yard in 1917, that action formed the Publishing House of the Petrograd Soviet directed by the Literary and Publishing Department of People's Commissariat for Education. In 1919, the State Publishing House in St. Petersburg changed its name to Petrogosizdat (Petrograd State Publishing) and in 1924, it was named Lengosizdat (Leningrad State Publishing, a.k.a., Lengiz) when St. Petersburg changed to Leningrad in honor of Vladimir Lenin.