Nikolai Kolomeitsev was born in the village of Pokrovka in the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day part of Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine) in 1867.

In 1894–1895, he was assigned to the Russian Pacific Fleet, and after graduating from mine warfare school, served on several vessels operating in Siberia.

He also took part in an expedition to the Yenisei Gulf led by L. Dobrotvorskiy, which gave him expertise on sailing in arctic waters.

Kolomeitsev was commander of the ship and his second-in-command was Fyodor Andreyevich Matisen, who had taken part in a previous exploratory trip to Svalbard.

Kolomeitsev, as a classic naval officer of the Russian Imperial Navy tried to keep a distance with the men and to impose harsh punishments for unruly behavior, but Toll (more in line with the spirit of the times in Russia) longed for comradeship, and treated the common sailors as equals.

Owing to the claustrophobic conditions of the wintering period, the relationship between captain Kolomeitsev and expedition leader Eduard Toll reached breaking point.

Toll sent Kolomeitsev along with Cossack officer Stepan Rastorguyev on dangerous sledge trips into snowstorms to the mouth of Taymyr River.

When editing her husband's journal she stated: "Further, I have omitted as non-essential the details of the mutual relations between expedition members.

He rescued Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhestvenski, wounded in the head by a shell from his burning and sinking battleship, as well as part of the crew.

Kolomeitsev, also severely wounded, was captured by the Japanese with the crews of Dmitri Donskoy, Buinyi and Oslabya on Dagelet Island.

He graduated from the Naval Maritime Academy of Sciences in 1908, he was assigned command of the cruiser Almaz and was promoted to full captain on 6 December 1909.