Yuri Meshcheryakov was a Soviet and Russian animator born in Moscow in 1946 and died in the same city in 2001. He graduated from the College of Architecture in Moscow in 1965 and later attended an animation course at the Soyuzmultfilm studio between 1971 and 1972. He worked with directors of the golden era of Soviet animation, including Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Roman Kachanov and Fedor Khitruk, and contributed to about fifty cartoons. His career came at the end of that period. When the USSR collapsed, the animation industry lost much of its activity, and he experienced unemployment and the economic crisis that followed. His animation credits include How the Cossacks Bought the Salt (1975), The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1984) and Glasha and Kikimora (1992). He also worked as art director on The Lake on the Bottom of the Sea (1989). His contribution remains visible in these films, which are still part of the history of Soviet animation.