The article deals with the organizational and scholarly contribution of Prof. A. Flaker to the creation of a multi-volume work on the theory and history of the Russian avant-garde. The project consolidated the efforts of the best European and Russian philologists and art historians in the mid 80s and early 90s of the last century. The goals, structure and thematic blocks of this work, its significance for the study of Russian culture of the 20th century are described. The connection with the traditions of the Russian Formal school, Soviet structuralism is shown.