“Russian art protected itself from many disappointments and humiliations by separating itself from the general history of European art. European historians hardly studied our art, while Russian historians wrote about national creativity in separate works, applying a much smaller measure here than the one used to judge world art… We saw everything in our art as if through a magnifying glass and placed everything on stilts… Every age understands the tasks and demands of honour in its own way. Perhaps until recently it was necessary and worthy to deceive ourselves and others, to pretend to rejoice where in fact we were merely indifferent, and to admire excessively what was in truth only mediocre… Let us finally stop considering Russian art separate from the general movement of world art. Let us recognise it as a full member of world culture and accept all the obligations and rights that follow from that recognition…”

Vsevolod Dmitriev. Apollon magazine, nos. 4–5, St Petersburg, 1917.