The YMCA Press publishing house began its activities in 1921, when a group of Russian emigrants, who found themselves in New York during World War I, approached John Mott, the General Secretary of the American YMCA, with a proposal for publishing. The YMCA had been present in Russia since 1900. Prague was chosen as the most suitable place for printing in the Russian language.

In 1923, the publishing house moved to Berlin, where many Russian emigrants lived. From 1925 to 1940, it was located in Paris, and in both 1925 and 1940, it was headed by Nikolai Berdyaev.

After the war, in 1946, the publishing house was restored, and its first post-war director was Donald Lauri, who led until 1952. From 1953, the publishing house was headed by Ivan Morozov, who held this position until 1978. After his death, the publishing house was managed by Nikita Struve until 2016.

YMCA Press was the first to publish many significant works of Russian literature, such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago." Among the authors whose works were published were Ivan Shmelev, Nikolai Berdyaev, Ivan Bunin, Boris Zaytsev, Marina Tsvetaeva, and others.

In 1990, an exhibition of the publishing house was held in Moscow at the State Library for Foreign Literature.

In 1991, a branch of the publishing house was established in Moscow under the name "Russian Path."

In 1995, a significant part of the publishing house's archive, including manuscripts, letters, and autographs, was transferred by Nikita Struve to the Moscow Library-Fund "Russian Abroad," which he founded together with the Russian Public Fund of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the government of Moscow.