In 1918, the Soviets nationalized the Moscow printing works of brothers Wilhelm Theodor Mehnert and Herman Julius Mehnert at 9 Bol'shaia Polianka (later named Soviet Street). The building housing the printer was first occupied by the Julius Kirsten printing firm. Upon its nationalization, the Soviets placed Mehnert printing under Geokartprom, a State-owed trust of the Commissariat of Defense that centralized government-mapping projects. Geokartprom printed atlases and maps solely for military and government use. While it did map geographic locations within the Soviet Union, it also carried out an enormous mapping project of cities throughout the world. In the 1920s, Geokartprom typolithography in Moscow was named in honor of the Bolshevik leader Evlampii Dunaev (1877-1919).

MSPO (Moscow Central Union of Consumers' Societies) was established in 1898 and it gained significant membership throughout Imperial Russia after 1907. After its reorganization by the Soviet government, MSPO became part of an association of consumer unions and its name was changed to the Central Union of Consumers' Societies (Tsentrosoiuz). In May 1921, Tsentrosoiuz became the single government agency responsible for distribution of wholesale consumer goods in the country.