Nikolay Vatutin was born on December 16, 1901 in the family of a middle peasant in the village of Chepukhino (at present — Vatutino) of the Valuyki district, Voronezh province (at present — the Belgorod region). After graduating from elementary school, he studied at the two-year zemstvo college in Valuyki, and then entered the Urazovo commercial college. Vatutin successfully studied there, but soon they stopped paying the scholarship, and he was forced to return home.

Since 1920, the future commander Nikolay Vatutin began his military service as a squad member of the third reserve rifle regiment in the town of Kharkov. Soon he was sent to a command courses in Poltava. Then he studied at the Kiev Higher United Military School and at the Military Academy named after Frunze. Teachers immediately noted in Vatutin such traits as dedication, perseverance, the ability to take a reasonable risk at the right time, quickly make a decision and implement it.

Soon Vatutin began to develop a new Proskurov-Chernovtsy offensive operation. Its sense was to shatter the enemy defense into parts with powerful strikes in a number of directions, and then destroy it. But, unfortunately, it was not possible to turn it into life. In February 1944, Nikolay Vatutin was wounded in the left thigh. At first it seemed not very dangerous, but the general’s condition deteriorated sharply. The best doctors, including the famous surgeon Nikolay Burdenko, fought for the life of the commander. However, amputation did not help either: On April 15, Vatutin died of blood poisoning. On April 17, 1944, the commander was buried in the Mariinsky Park in Kiev.