Meer Moiseevich Akselrod was a Soviet painter and graphic artist. He was born on the territory of present-day Belarus. For some time, while living in Minsk, he worked as a designer of advertising posters for the cinema industry. He also worked as a draftsman at the Communications Directorate of the Red Army. He was a student at Victor Perelman’s drawing school in Tambov. He also studied under Vladimir Shtranikh in Smolensk and at the VKHUTEMAS in Moscow. While being a student, he became a member of the artistic association “Four Arts” and took part in its exhibitions. Later started teaching at the VKHUTEIN and the Moscow State Textile Institute. Meer Akselrod focused on the Jewish people in the Russian Empire and the USSR in his works. He made many sketches of synagogues and people engaged in daily activities during his travels. In 1930–1931, he visited the agricultural commune of Jews from Palestine, “Voyo-Nova”, in Crimea, which resulted in a series of drawings titled “In the Steppe”. In the 1930s he was accused of formalism, as a result he focused on book illustrations and designs for theatre productions. He worked as a scenery designer for the MOSPS Theatre and GOSET in Minsk and Moscow. He designed such productions as "Measure of Severity” by David Bergelson, "Boytre the Robber" by Moyshe Kulbak, "The Bewitched Tailor" by Shalom Aleichem and many others. In 1941, he was evacuated to Alma Ata, where he participated in the shooting of Sergey Eisenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible". It was during this period that his first solo exhibition took place. There he also met Jewish refugees from Poland, whose stories laid the foundation for the series of works titled “The German Occupation”. In 1966, he participated in a group exhibition at the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, and two years later he had a solo exhibition in Rostov-on-Don. A large number of costume designs and scenery sketches by Meer Akselrod is held at the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum.