Nicolae Coval was born on 19 December 1904 in the city of Camenca, Russian Empire (now in Transnistria, Republic of Moldova).
Nicolae Coval became a member of the CPSU in 1939; in the period 1940–1945, he served as the People's Commissar for Agriculture of the MSSR.
At Congresses I - IV, X - XII of the Communist Party of the MSSR was elected as a member of the Central Committee.
During his rule, the hunger of 1946-1947 occurred in the Moldаvian SSR, when more than 170 thousand people died[citation needed].
The hunger was stopped in the autumn of 1947, after which a forced collectivisation of agriculture in Bessarabia was ordered by Soviet authorities.