Yuri Merkulov

Yuri Alexandrovich Merkulov (; – 13 February 1979) was a Soviet artist, animation and film director, conservator-restorer, inventor, film theorist and actor. He is known as one of the founders of the Soviet school of traditional and stop motion animation.

Early years Yuri Merkulov was born in the Rasskazovo village (modern-day town of Rasskazovo, Tambov Oblast of Russia) into a wealthy Russian family. He was one of the seven children of Alexander Nikolaevich Merkulov (1869–1924), a prominent surgeon and a member of the Russian Society of Doctors who inspected, organized and reorganized medical clinics all over the country. During World War I he headed one of the Moscow military hospitals, and after the October Revolution he founded the Moscow Institute of Traumatology, working closely with Nikolai Semashko. Yuri's mother Maria Karlovna Merkulova (1870–1944) was a professional piano player who dedicated herself to raising children.

Yuri became interested in art early in his life and entered Fyodor Rerberg's Moscow School of Painting. During the war he and his sisters worked at their father's hospital, mending wounded soldiers. He then served in the Soviet Navy and on his return joined Vkhutemas where he studied under Ilya Mashkov until 1923. He became closely associated with the Soviet Avant-Garde art movement, taking part in various progressive coalitions, including Vladimir Mayakovsky's collective of modern artists where he drew ROSTA posters and designed scenery for the Mystery-Bouffe play, among other things. Together with Daniil Cherkes he also decorated agit-trains; it was during that time they came up with the idea of "animated posters", the earliest kind of Soviet animation based on the art by Dmitry Moor, Viktor Deni and Mikhail Cheremnykh.

Career In 1923, Merkulov along with Nikolai Khodataev and produced sketches for the Aelita science fiction movie. As Yakov Protazanov rejected the idea of mixing live action with animation, the three founded their own experimental workshop under the State School of Cinematography, the first Soviet animation studio. By 1924 they finished Interplanetary Revolution — a cutout animation parody on Aelita and the current political situation that became very popular. In a year, they were hired by the Soviet government to produce China in Flames, another political satire critical of European interference in Chinese economy. Vladimir Suteev, Ivan Ivanov-Vano and the Brumberg sisters joined the team which led to a variety of styles. With 1000 meters of film and 14 frames per second, it ran over 50 minutes at the time, which made it the first Soviet animated feature film and one of the first in the world. After that Merkulov, Khodataev and Komissarenko went their own ways.

Late years Merkulov took part in the Great Patriotic War and on his return continued the art career. Only during the 1950s, he turned back to cinema. Between 1955 and 1965, he created animated sequences for many live action movies, including the science fiction film I Was a Satellite of the Sun (1959) and Grigori Aleksandrov's Russian Souvenir (1960). He also directed several propaganda animated shorts similar to those he had been involved back in the 1920s, such as Prosecute Bread Thieves! (1965), although there was no demand for it anymore. In addition he played episodic roles of Russian noblemen and landlords in historical dramas: his aristocratic appearance attracted film directors.

Yuri Merkulov died in 1979 and was buried in the family tomb at the Novodevichy Cemetery. He was married to Antonina Vasilievna Merkulova whom he met in Crimea. They had a daughter Nina.

Literature Cinema: Encyclopedic Dictionary // main editor Sergei Yutkevich (1987). — Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, p. 265 Olga Nesterovich (1971). Life in Cinema. Veterans about Themselves and Their Friends. — Moscow: Iskusstvo, p. 124 Yuri Merkulov (1928). Something about Bratishkin. — Soviet Screen № 49 Ivan Ivanov-Vano (1980). Frame After Frame. — Moscow: Iskusstvo, p. 17-23, 54-60