Faik Tagirov was born in a small village located in what is today Tatarstan, Russia. For over 60 years he worked in graphic design and publishing in the Soviet Union and he was a part of the literary scene of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic early in his career. Although he was a Kazan-based artist, Tagirov spent the majority of his life in Moscow.

Although he was born in Astrakhan in southern Russia, Nikolai Nikolaevich Kronevald lived in Kazan for most of his life. Very little is known about Kronevald’s personal life and historical information concerning the artist is scarce at best. However, one published source indicates that his family was of German descent. As a professional artist, Kronevald worked for the Tatar State Publishing House where he specialized in graphic art. In 1936, Kronevald was arrested for depicting a "fascist swastika" on a design he was creating. In 1937, he was convicted by the Special Board of the Main Court of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and, he was sent to prison. According to one source, Kronevald served a three-year term while another Russian-published source indicates he spent five to ten years in prison.

Tatpoligraf (Tatar Poligrafic Enterprise) was a printing trust formed in 1927 to consolidate printing houses in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic that were outside the jurisdiction of Tatgosizdat (Tatar State Publishing House). The Vostok Lithography (at 4 Kazanskaia Street, Kazan) as well as the Proletarskoe Slovo (Proletarian Word) Lithography in Kazan were under Tatpoligraf management.

The Janalif Society was based in Kazan, the capital city of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The Society was formed in 1926 with the aim of replacing the traditional Arabic-based script used for the Tatar language with a new, Latin-based script. From 1927 to 1928, the alphabet was reformed to thirty-three letters and it was called the Janalif (Unified Turkic Alphabet).