[1] It was formed at the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR on May 20, 1919 in accordance with the Regulations of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and on the initiative of Anatoly Lunacharsky.
The publishing house was headed by an editorial board, the chairman and members of which were provided by the People's Commissariat of Education, appointed by the Council of People's Commissars and approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Commission[2] The decree founding Gosizdat placed all private publishing in Soviet Russia under their control.
Although publishers were required to submit manuscripts before publication, Gosizdat was remarkably inefficient and was unable to enforce this.
The most significant problems were lack of paper and maintaining the printing presses.
[3] In February 1921, following the report of the Litkens Commission, Gosizdat was incorporated as a department within Narkompros.