Makarov was born in a village in the Ryazan Oblast and graduated from the Moscow Higher Combined Arms Command School in 1971.

After becoming a Soviet Army officer he commanded motor rifle units from the platoon to the division level before becoming the chief of staff of the Joint Group of Russian Forces in Tajikistan in 1993.

Nikolai Makarov was born on 7 October 1949 in the village of Glebovo-Gorodishche [ru], Ryazan Oblast, in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

[1][2] Makarov began his career in 1971 by commanding a motor rifle platoon, company, and battalion in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

While he was at that post Makarov also took part in the "Zapad 1999" war game in the summer of that year, where he was with the Russian Minister of Defense, Marshal Igor Sergeyev.

In this context, Baluyevsky stepped down from his post and Nikolai Makarov was chosen to replace him the Chief of the General Staff in June 2008.

Speaking about the Russian military in the conflict with Georgia, General Makarov said that "it is impossible to not notice a certain gap between theory and practice.

[14] The main goal of the reform was to modernize the Russian military, make the Ground Forces more mobile, and to streamline the command system.

[8][14] In March 2011, Makarov said in a speech at the Academy of Military Science that the Russian Ground Forces should have 425,000 troops, with about 10–15 percent being conscripts.

[8] He met with his American counterpart, the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on several occasions, including Admiral Mike Mullen in October 2008,[19] June 2009,[20] January 2010,[21] May 2011,[22] and September 2011;[23] and General Martin Dempsey in July 2012.

[21][23] In January 2012, Makarov visited the NATO headquarters in Belgium, where he met with the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, and attended a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.

The way this was done was criticized by Nikolai Kolomeitsev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee and opponent of the military reform, who questioned the granting of the award in secretive circumstances.

Colonel General Valery Gerasimov, who had been Makarov's deputy chief from 2010 to 2012, was appointed as his replacement, being the choice of the new defense minister, Sergei Shoigu.

[27][28] After his dismissal, he was appointed as an aide to the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as an Analyst under the Office of Inspectors General in March 2013.