Nikolai Nikolaevich Pomanskii received his art education at the Moscow Stroganov Institute of Art where he graduated in 1904. He also obtained artistic education at the workshops of Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin and Sergei Vasilievich Ivanov. Pomanskii studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and in 1908, returned to Russia and taught for four years in the towns of Vetluga and Kazan. In 1918, he participated in agitprop painting for the burgeoning Soviet Government and also participated in the exhibits of the Moscow Association of Artists and in the 1933 exhibition, "15 Years of the Red Army."

Bumpoligraftrust (Bumazhno-Poligrafcheskii trest) was formed in 1922 as a printing and paper trust in the city of Viatka, 900 kilometers east of Moscow. In addition to the printing houses it oversaw, the trust encompassed four paper mills. In 1934, the city of Viatka was renamed "Kirov" in honor of Sergei Mironovich Kirov (1886-1934), deceased Communist Party leader of Leningrad. The city was re-named Viatka after the fall of the USSR.

Litizdat (Literaturno-izdatel'skii otdel politicheskogo upravleniia RVSR) was established in June 1919 by order of the Department of the Political Directorate (PUR) of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR). A formal decree approved its existence in October that year. Due to the hierarchy of Litizdat's formation, its title is often abbreviated as Litizdat PUR RVSR on publications it issued. As the main publishing arm for the Red Army and the Red Navy, Litizdat distributed a total of 7.5 million posters and postcards between 1919 and 1922. After the Russian Civil War, Litizdat PUR was dissolved and its functions were divided into a succession of state publishing entities. In 1921, the key functions of Litizdat were assigned to the Department of Military Literature (Litrevsor) and by 1924, Litrevsor gave-way to the State Military Publishing House (Gosudarstvennoe voennoe izdatel'stvo), Voenizdat-Voengiz.