In the summer of 1915, the art critic Iakov Tugendkhold published a lengthy essay, “In the iron dead-end,” which summarized many of his thoughts on the development of modern art in Europe and Russia, particularly since the beginning of the First Wrold War. Rather unknown today, this text is as important in its stance and position as Alexander Benois’ famous diatribe against the new icon of suprematism published six months later as a review of the 0,10 exhibition held in the late 1915 in Petrograd. This introduction helps to better understand Tugendkhold's background, beliefs and attitude towards modern art, and the reasons for his strong criticism of avant-garde experiments in Russia, in particular of Vladimir Tatlin's counter-reliefs, but also of the experimental assemblages by Maïakovski, Burliuk and Lentulov shown at a Moscow group exhibition in early 1915, within the context of the 1st World War.