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.

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.

[7] 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.

Together with Ivanov-Vano he drew animated sequences for Vsevolod Pudovkin's Mechanics of the Brain, the first Soviet popular science movie that received praise from both Ivan Pavlov and international medical specialists.

His old friend Daniil Cherkes joined them in their next project — a live-action animated film Senka the African (1927) based on the comedy poem by Korney Chukovsky about a little boy who travelled to Africa on a balloon.

It combined hand-drawn and cutout scenes with live action sequences, becoming one of the first Soviet films aimed at children along with The Skating Rink by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky.

By that time, Merkulov had already moved to Gosvoenkino (studio dedicated to military documentaries) where he, Leonid Amalrik and Lev Atamanov started an animation workshop.

As an engineer he constructed amusement rides for the Central Park of Culture and Leisure, including a full-size interactive seaplane model equipped with a shooting range.

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).