In summer 1884 the future scientist was admitted to the Imperial Saint Petersburg University, where he studied at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.

The years from 1896 to 1898 Nikolai Kravkov spent in practical trainings in different European countries (Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy and Switzerland).

His practical training in the Strasbourg laboratory of Oswald Schmiedeberg, the founder of modern experimental pharmacology, influenced greatly upon his further work.

In 1920 on the recommendation of the Nobel laureate Ivan Pavlov Nikolai Kravkov was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Science of Russia.

The creation of a new up-to-date textbook that would be up to the mark relevant to the Professor Kravkov's exam requirements became a pressing task.

The students of the Imperial Military Medical Academy frequently studied by a transcript of their Professor's lectures, arranged in the first years of his teaching.

A comparative study of diverse soporifics conducted by Professor Kravkov resulted in materialization of his idea of applying non-volatile somnifacients for general anesthesia.

Thus, Professor Kravkov suggested application of Hedonal for intravenous anesthesia, which was immediately tested in clinics, and enjoys general recognition today.

Professor Kravkov worked out several original methods of vessel perfusion in isolated organs to study their functions.

This field of pharmacology studies the peculiarities of drug effect on certain experimentally caused pathologic conditions in animals — e.g. atherosclerosis in rabbits, aseptic or infectious inflammations, etc.

During the last period of his life Professor Kravkov focused his attention on studying changes in the functions of the endocrine gland entailed by pharmacologic substances.

Kravkov's fundamental discoveries in pharmacology enriched Russian and world science, contributed to the development of biology, physiology and pathology.

Professor Kravkov's disciples were Academicians of the Academy of Medical Science of the USSR Sergey Anichkov and Vasily Zakusov, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Science of the USSR Mikhail Nikolayev, Professors Mikhail Gramenitsky, Vasily Berezin, Grigory Shkavera, Boris Sentiurin, Anatoly Kuznetsov.

The couple had two children: Olga Kravkova (1892-1942), later married to Mikhail Velichkovsky, a Navy officer, and Sergey Kravkov (1894-1942), Soviet hydrographer and arctic explorer.