Is it true that Simplified Chinese was devised by the government in the 1950s

As I'm mobile and don't have access to sources I can quote, I cannot give an answer that meets this subreddit's guidelines. Instead, I'll form a question which someone else can answer, or I'll do so when I'm not on mobile. Thus:

• Is it not the case that native writers had been simplifying Chinese characters long before the 1950s? That is, what the CCP did was standardize, codify, and enforce a system of simplification in mainland China, for the (in theory) advancement of literacy among the native Chinese people, irrespective of the the West?