The paper examines the mechanisms of appropriation of antique heritage in avant-garde theory. Antiquity and classical art are the consepts constructed by the most eminent theorists of the new trends that play a significant role in our understanding of the symbolical structure of Modern Art. Political and philosophical connotations of the appropriations of this kind (to be exact - the creation of the new images of antiquity in avant-garde art and culture) are illustrated in the present article by the writings of Nikolay Punin - one of the leading Russian theorists of Modernism. Racist, nationalist, avant-garde and socialist components of Punin's works are distinguished as well as its connections with totalitarian aesthetics. Special attention is paid to the comparison of Punin's and Nietzsche's strategies of appropriation of antique. For the first time in the scientific literature Punin's theory of avant-garde is considered in the context of his politico-philosophical works, which united nationalist and racist myths of German “conservative revolution”, Russian, and Italian modernism.