The 1st State Lithography had its roots in Imperial Russia. The St. Petersburg-based printing operation was founded in 1881 by Theodore Kibbel (Fedor Fyodorovich Kibbel’) with just four printing presses. By the 1890s, Kibbel had opened a large workshop at 9 Kronverkskaia near the intersection of Mir Street. As a hub for the chromolithography production of posters, labels, cartons, and other ephemera; Kibbel ran one of the largest and most versatile printing operations in the Russian Empire. In 1917, the Council of People’s Commissars of Labor nationalized the workshop and in 1918, it was reorganized as the 1st State Lithography. In 1924, it was named in honor of Mikhail Pavlovich Tomskii (1880-1936) who was the head of the trade union and State Publishing House. By the mid-1930s, the 1st State Lithography was reorganized as the 24th Lithography of Ogiz (Association of State Book and Magazine Publishers) and in the late 1940s to early 1950s, its name was changed to the Leningrad Offset Printing Plant.

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 publishing house became Petrogosizdat and in 1924, it was renamed Lengosizdat (A.K.A. Lengiz) when St. Petersburg changed to Leningrad in honor of Vladimir Lenin.