It can be said that the art of printing was invented three times: in China and Korea, in the 7th century and in Europe in the middle of the 15th century by Johann Gutenberg, who created the movable-type press. Movable-type implies assembling the text manually with the use of metal or wooden types (letters carved on metal or wood).

The Karelian Front Museum presents a printing press of this type of text assembly. The printing press is portable and packed inside a wooden suitcase, which contains all necessary equipment for printing. Printing is extremely simple: letters are laid out on a metal pallet with sides (located to the right of the printing press). A text is assembled out of letters, which are then covered with ink, a blank piece of paper is put on top of the letters and is pressed against them with a roller. The leaflets had no pretty pictures and ornate headlines, however, they fulfilled their function by encouraging local residents who were under temporary occupation, told the latest news from the front and threatened the enemy with retaliation.

This printing press is a landmark item of the Karelian Front’s military history: it belonged to a Karelian underground resistance group who had been operating since the summer of 1943 in enemy-occupied Sheltozersky district. By the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR, a party-Komsomol group was sent to this area. This group was supposed to perform tasks of the underground district party committee. The group was parachuted from an airplane on August 13, 1943. It was a multinational group, which consisted of Dmitry Gorbachev of the Veps people who was the secretary of the underground district party committee; Russian, Pavel Udaltsov — secretary of the underground Komsomol district committee; Karelian local, Mikhail Asanov — messenger; and Finnish Silva Paaso who was the radio operator.