Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky was born into a time-honoured noble family and was baptized by Tsar Nicholas the First and the mother of revolutionist Vera Zasulich.

Nikolai graduated from the Railroad Engineers Institute and for four years served in Bulgaria and worked on construction of Batumi port. After that he wished to “settle down on land” and spent three years in the countryside, in Samara Province; however his unconventional land management was not a success and he took service again to participate in construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

In 1891 Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky headed the surveying party that chose the place for building a railroad bridge over River Ob for the Trans-Siberian Railway. It was he who rejected the option of raising the bridge in Tomsk city. This decision later resulted in the choice of the future Novosibirsk and played a vital role in development of the city.

The railroad engineer appeared on the literary stage with his successful story Tyoma's Childhood (1892) and the short story Several Years in the Country.

His travels in the Far East resulted in the travel notes Around Korea, Manchuria and Liaodong Peninsula (1899) and Korean Tales (published in 1899).