Between 1910 and 1914, Filonov was a member of the art group Soyuz Molodyozhi ("Union of Youth"), founded by artists Elena Guro and Mikhail Matyushin.

Filonov later took an active role in the Russian Revolution of 1917, serving as Chairman of the Revolutionary War Committee in the Dunay region.

There, he founded the Masters of Analytical Realism, a significant art school with over seventy members, including the American sculptor and painter Helen Hooker.

Under the umbrella of Universal Flowering, Filonov developed a distinctive method of working that emphasized proceeding from the particular to the general.

He believed that objects and compositions should be constructed from small details and fragments, considering any attempt to work in the opposite direction as nothing short of "charlatanism."

According to the tale, anyone who attempted to steal or smuggle his paintings abroad would suffer misfortune, such as death, paralysis, or similar calamities.