The “Czytelnik” (Reader) Publishing Cooperative was founded in Lublin in 1944. In 1945, the headquarters moved to Warsaw. The oldest post-war publishing house in Poland, “Czytelnik” initially established libraries and bookstores and published such newspapers and magazines as „Rzeczpospolita”, „Życie Warszawy”, „Przekrój” and „Przyjaciółka”.

Since 1951, publication of newspapers and periodicals was taken over by the “Prasa” (Press) Workers’ Publishing Cooperative and “Czytelnik” switched its pro le purely to literature and humanities, publishing books by Polish authors and translations of foreign works.

The oldest book series of “Czytelnik” is Nike, which includes translations of 20th century world literature, as well as Nowy Sympozjon, which includes translations of contemporary literature.