As a tank platoon and company commander, Lapygin was decorated for his actions in World War II.

Postwar, he held staff positions and rose to regimental and division command, serving in East Germany.

Lapygin commanded the 20th Guards Army for two years and ended his active service as chief of staff of the Transbaikal Military District.

Nikolay Ivanovich Lapygin was born on 12 December 1922 in the village of Lavrovka, Polyanovsky District, Voronezh Oblast.

His parents were collective farmers, and his father was killed on the Leningrad Front in January 1942 while fighting as an ordinary soldier.

He was reported by his superiors to have not left the battle despite being wounded, led his crew into the attack, and credited with killing several Germans in hand-to-hand combat; for this action he received the Medal for Courage on 18 May.

He was sent to the army field hospital in Voronezh Oblast, requesting to be sent back to his unit, preparing for battle in the Kursk bulge.

For this action and for his performance in the training of his company while the regiment was in army reserve before Kursk, he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class, on 7 August.

[2] Before the beginning of the offensive to take the Ukrainian capital in the Battle of Kiev, Lapygin distinguished himself in organizing reconnaissance of the forward German defenses.

[3] The war ended for Lapygin when he was sent to the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces for advanced training on 24 December 1944.

[2] After graduating from the academy on 31 August 1948, Lapygin became an officer of the reconnaissance department of the headquarters of the 8th Mechanized Army in the Carpathian Military District.

He was transferred to the headquarters of the district armored and mechanized forces commander as an officer of the operational and combat training department on 6 October 1949.