The article is devoted to the theoretical heritage of the outstanding Russian art critic Ieremia Ioffe (1888-1947). For the first time Ioffe’s “Synthetic History of Art” is considered in the context of the avant-garde theory of art and, in particular, in connection with the rhetoric of everythingism (vsechestvo) of Mikhail Larionov and Ilya Zdanevich. Two components of the theoretical constructions of I. I. Ioffe are distinguished - “poststructuralist” and “protototalitarian”. Particular attention is paid to the conception of “primitive socialism” of I. I. Ioffe and biological metaphors in his work.