The imperial Police
would never uncover this
underground printing office.

The covert printing office on Lesnaya Street seized its functioning in 1906 by party order.

The machine was disassembled and moved to Rozhdestvensky Boulevard in central Moscow, where they started a new underground printing office, also masked as a store. Its organisers included people we already know: Ushangi Jashi and Sylvester Todria. This establishment turned out to be less fortunate — it was uncovered in 1907.

Many years later, during the Soviet rule, the story of the covert operation on Lesnaya Street was given a new twist by “old Bolshevik” Vasily Sokolov. Under his suggestion the premises of the printing office were reconstructed and in November 1924 it opened as a museum.

Nowadays everyone has a chance to play the underground revolutionary by taking this historic tour of the museum.

You can find even more unique documents concerning the history of the Museum in the Digital catalogue