Rank: Colonel. Division: 339th rifle Rostov-Taman Brandenburg Red Banner order of Suvorov division. He started the war with the Finnish company as a Lieutenant and as an anti-tank weapons’ commander. He was wounded and after recovery was sent to Rostov-on-Don, in August 1941 at the disposal of 339 SD. October 12, 1941 in the area of village Razinoye, Bogatyrev, first clashes with the vanguard of the Kleist’s 1st panzer group occured. On October 13, the division crossed to the right bank of the Mius river and advanced in the South-Western direction, covering 10-15 km in a few days and suffering heavy losses. On October 17, German forces of the 14th panzer and 60th motorized divisions launched an offensive, defeating the 1137th Rostov regiment. On October 20, the 1135th Salsk regiment was also surrounded and almost completely destroyed near the village of Neklinovka. The remnants of the division were pushed far back beyond the Mius river. During the winter counteroffensive near Rostov, N.I. Kolesnikov returned to the Mius front near the village Matveev Kurgan, where he fought until July 1942, when the German offensive in the Caucasus and Stalingrad began. In August 1942, the division retreated to the foothills of the Caucasus and for six months defended the frontier: Derbent, Azov-Ilskaya and further along the heights to the South of Kholmskaya and Akhtyrskaya. Then he took part in the liberation of the Kuban and the Taman Peninsula, as well as the Kerch-Eltigen landing. In the Crimean operation of 1944, he was part of the mobile group of the 16th rifle corps, liberating Kerch and participating in the liberation of Sevastopol. Later, the division was transferred to the 1st Belorussian front and took part in the Vistula-Oder operation (Warsaw-Poznań frontline offensive (1945)) and the capture of Berlin (Seelow-Berlin and Brandenburg-Rathenow frontline offensive). His battle path ended on the Elbe. After the division was disbanded at the end of May 1945, he was transferred to the Far East and took part in the fighting on the lake Hanko. He was an honorary citizen of Akhtyrsk and Kerch. He finished his service as the head of the tactics cycle of the higher officer courses "Shot".