Simon Izrailevich Gutman was a Latvian and Soviet graphic artist, illustrator, and caricaturist. Gutman began his artistic studies at a young age by attending art schools in Riga. During this period, he was a student alongside Romans Suta, the noted Latvian graphic artist. Starting in 1932, Gutman began exhibiting his work professionally. The artist’s foray into the genre of poster design began in the 1940s. During the Second World War, the artist designed cartoons and po...

Until World War II, Latvia had thriving publishing and printing industries. Between Soviet annexation in 1940 and the German occupation in 1941, Lativa's position as a European publishing hub drastically changed. Around 1940 Lativa's largest publisher, Liesma (Flame), was nationalized during Soviet annexation. The publisher became VAPP (Department of State Book Publishers and Polygraphic Enterprises) and was controlled as a state-run entity. From 1946-1964, VAPP was named Latgosizdat and in 1965, the publisher was re-named Liesma. It specialized in ...