He was born in the noble family of Kulikovsky, who owned the Evstratovka estate. He was the eldest of his sibilings (Alexandra and Lev). Their great-grandfather Count Kirill Gudovich (eldest son of Count I.V. Gudovich) was a general during the Patriotic War of 1812 and owned two large estates in Ukraine. Nikolai's father is Alexander Nikanorovich Kulikovsky, cavalry guard, major general. Nikolai learned to ride a horse from an early age and became an experienced rider. He studied at the Gurevich real school in St. Petersburg, then at the Nikolaev Cavalry School (1900-1902). Following the family tradition, he joined the army.
In 1903, he was noticed by Grand Duchess Olga during a military inspection, and they became close friends. Olga wanted to divorce her first husband, Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, and marry Kulikowski, but neither her husband nor her brother, Tsar Nicholas II, allowed it. During the First World War, Olga eventually divorced and married Kulikowski in the Three Saints Church in Kiev. Only the priest, the Empress Dowager (Olga Alexandrovna's mother), Grand Duke Alexander, two nurses from the hospital and four officers of the Akhtyrsky regiment were present at the wedding. The couple spent their honeymoon at Podgorny, the estate of Kulikovsky's friends. Then, having visited Kulikovsky's parents, the couple returned to Kyiv. Later, they had two sons named Tykhon and Guriy.
Her brother was overthrown during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and Kulikovsky was dismissed from the army by the revolutionary government. The Kulikovskys were forced into exile, and he became a farmer and businessman in Denmark, where they lived until the end of World War II. In 1948, they emigrated to Canada as agricultural immigrants, but within four years of their arrival they sold their farm and moved into a small suburban home. He became disabled due to back pain and died in 1958 at the age of 76.
