His paternal grandmother Agafia Kondratievna Khodataeva, a lonely Russian woman, was seduced by a merchant from the Vladimir Governorate and taken away from her native town.
By the time Nikolai was born, he had made a successful career as a tsarist official and could afford to pay for his son's art lessons.
[1][2] In 1924 Nikolai Khodataev along with the fellow artists Yuri Merkulov and Zenon Komissarenko were hired by Yakov Protazanov to make sketches for his upcoming science fiction movie Aelita.
The artists made excessive use of cutout animation (called flat marionettes at the time) along with the constructivism art style that was at its peak in Russia.
[1][2] In 1925 they were hired by the Soviet government to produce China in Flames, another cutout animation critical of European interference in Chinese economy, this time serious in tone and message.
Vladimir Suteev along with the young Vkhutemas graduates Ivan Ivanov-Vano and the Brumberg sisters joined the team which led to a variety of art styles.
In 1933-1934 he directed his last two animated films: The Little Organ, an adaptation of The History of a Town by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Fialkin's Career about an ambitious fool.
[8] In addition, he wrote articles for the Soviet Screen and Iskusstvo Kino magazines and produced animation for theatrical plays staged at the Natalya Sats Musical Theater.