Editing Rabbi Meir Avtzon (section)

[[File:מאיר אבצן 2.jpg|thumb|250px|Rabbi Avtzon]]
Rabbi Meir was born to Rabbi Gershon and Esther in Miragrad, Poltava Province, Russia on 8 Tevet 5669 (1909).

During World War I as a young child, his family's home was hit by a bomb and collapsed. After escaping from the rubble, he went to Rabbi Yona Cohen's house. Despite his young age, Rabbi Yona Cohen allowed him to join his classes. Between 1926-1932, he continued his studies at Tomchei Temimim in Kharkov, and after its closure moved to Tomchei Temimim in Nevel.

As a young man, after the Yevsektsia restricted the yeshiva in Kremenchug and the previous supervisor had to flee, Rabbi Meir was sent by [[The Rebbe Rayatz|the Frierdiker Rebbe]] to supervise the yeshiva, which was then managed by Rabbi Yisroel Noach Blinitski.

After the Frierdiker Rebbe left Russia in 1927, Rabbi Meir remained in Malakhovka where a vibrant Chabad community developed. His close friends included Rabbi Yaakov of Skalik (Zhuravicher) and Rabbi Avraham Dreizin (Major), who once saved Rabbi Meir during a Yevsektsia pursuit by hiding him in his basement.

In Elul 1935, during the first major wave of NKVD arrests targeting Chassidic activity in Russia, Rabbi Meir was arrested with seven other Chassidim and taken to the Lubyanka secret police headquarters in Moscow. Despite torture by NKVD interrogators demanding information about who organized the cheders and yeshivas, who taught there, and which parents sent their children, Rabbi Meir remained silent. After interrogation he was transferred to Butyrka prison to await sentencing.

The six-page indictment charged Rabbi Meir and his fellow arrested Chassidim with organizing Jewish education for children in cheders and yeshivas in Malakhovka near Moscow, gathering intellectually capable youth to train as teachers, and teaching Talmud and religious practices. While such charges could have resulted in a death sentence, they mercifully received a relatively light sentence of three years exile in Kazakhstan.
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