Manizer was one of the leading sculptors of the Soviet Union alongside Ivan Shadr, Vera Mukhina, Yevgeny Vuchetich and
Sergey Konenkov. He was born in St Petersburg. Manizer attended the Baron A.L.Stieglitz's Central School for Technical
Drawing and later the Peredvizhniki art school from 1908 through 1916 and later the Academy of Arts. 

From 1926, he was a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. In 1941, he moved to Moscow. He worked in the Academic and Realistic styles, producing a great number of monuments, including twelve sculptures of Lenin. 

For his artworks, Manizer received three Stalin Prizes (in 1941, 1943, 1950) and the title of the People's Artist of the USSR (1958).