Nikolai Evreinov’s report “The theatricalization of life. Ex cathedra” (1911) and Velimir Khlebnikov’s manifesto “Our Basis” (1919) demonstrate a similar idea of the beginning of human civilization. Both authors insist that the performative function of language preceded the communicative function, that performativity was the ground for complete understanding, and that present-day process control requires the attainment of a special speed of oral speech, through which the alienation of the primordial state is constructed. The symbol of performativity for both becomes a scrap of cloth that transforms the one gifted with it into a sound puppet, so that language is interpreted along the lines of the puppet game. The origins of such commonality are found in Kant’s treatise “The Conjecturable Beginning of Human History” (1876). The assimilation of Kant’s ideas is assumed, not directly, but through the interpretation of the Fall in the fundamental theology and middle school religion lessons. The anthropological interests of Evreinov and Khlebnikov proved productive in challenging the dream of synthetic total art.