"Stalin himself cannot stare Nikolai in the eye, no one can. For in his eyes you see the soul of a man burning with a hatred of all things living. His closet is full of skeletons, many of them with the flesh still attached. Before the war, Nikolai quickly made his way up through the party ranks by killing the next man in line, and by marrying politically. His aspirations all came crashing down after his fifth wife mysteriously died while cleaning Nikolai’s axe with her neck. Little did he know that she had been sleeping with a high ranking party official on the side. After her tragic demise, Nikolai’s reputation spread quickly through the party, and it wasn’t long before Stalin himself had heard about the psychopathic politician who killed anything that came within 5 feet of him. As soon as the war started, Nikolai was dropped at the front line and forgotten about, where he wallowed in self pity and Vodka for several years. With many weapons in his arsenal, not least of which is his breath, Nikolai Belinski can look death in the eye and say 'I know you'."
Based on his dialog, Nikolai is an alcoholic and likes vodka.
In Blood and Iron, when Dimitri Petrenko enters the train, the player will see two figures similar to Nikolai. One of them is probably Chernov, while the other one could be Nikolai. However, when he exits the train in Ring of Steel, there is only Chernov on the right. The other figure is nowhere to be found. He might have exited the train before reaching Pankow.
Out of all three of the other characters, Nikolai shows the highest respect for Dempsey, however any respect he has for him is not returned, in fact Dempsey barely ever even acknowledges him, although they get drunk together in Call of The Dead, which could mean that they are friends.
Nikolai seems to have no respect for Takeo Masaki. He even says in Kino der Toten the simple line of, "I hate you, Takeo." after the player holds the specified use button on the picture of Takeo.
When getting an Assault Rifle off the wall or from the Mystery Box, he may say, "I got 99 problems, but the gun ain't one." referring to Jay-Z's song, "99 Problems."
Before the war, he was apparently a Carpenter, because he sometimes says,"In Russia, I was a carpenter, you know."
Like Dempsey and Takeo, his memory has been wiped. He may be recovering, as he remembers having killed his wives and other things of his Russian life.
Nikolai seems to be the only one of the playable characters who does not directly disrespect Dempsey.
There appears to be writing on Nikolai's bag, and upon closer inspection, it says Nikolai's Vodka.
Nikolai is apparently a Cossack, as one of his quotes are "This is not a good weapon for a Cossack!" Also, Richtofen refers to him as his "Cossack friend."
It seems that Tank, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen all hate each other, but one of the bigger friendships lies between Richtofen and Nikolai. This was the case up until Ascension.
Whenever Nikolai kills a zombie by knifing, he says a line. Knifing many zombies during insta-kill can result in him saying over four lines simultaneously.
He is a father, as he says: "My daughter loved that fucking bear" when he gets the Teddy Bear from the Mystery Box.
In Kino der Toten, he has fingerless gloves in first person view, but in 3rd person he has no gloves at all.
In Black Ops, his first-person character model is the same as Alex Mason's first person model in the level Vorkuta.
One of Nikolai's quotes in Ascension is said without a Russian accent, and it does not even sound like him. This could be a dubbing problem. The quote is 'His head's at crotch level, do not get excited Dempsey."
Also, in the revamped version of Dempsey in Black Ops, Nikolai randomly might say a similar line, but with a fake American accent. He does this probably to mock Dempsey in some way.
During 115 in Kino der Toten, Nikolai will sometimes sing along to one of the verses in his own version of that part.
In Kino der Toten Nikolai has a bandage on his arm, indicating he is wounded.
Nikolai at one time in his life either lived or worked on a pig farm, as when he receives or buys a poor weapon, he will sometimes say "There were better weapons on my pig farm." after getting a Molotov Cocktail.
Nikolai has a sister, as sometimes in Kino der Toten, he will say "Even my little sister shoots better than you, Takeo!". It is also mentioned in Ascension that his sister made Matryoshka Dolls and he hated her.
He was married at least five times, and murdered at least three of them. The first wife was killed with a shotgun (the Double-Barreled Shotgun), as when he picks one up out of the weapon box, he will say, "Ah, the same weapon I used to kill my first wife! She was bitch.", or "I used this to kill a bear once, she was my first wife.". The second is by either a receivable of a PPSh-41 or a PTRS-41, Nikolai says, "Same weapon I used to kill my second wife. It was accident!...She talked too much." The fifth wife, as previously mentioned, was killed by an axe, though on Ascension, when he recieves an assault rifle from the Mystery Box, he states "I used this to kill my relative. She was my fifth wife!". Only his fourth wife was confirmed to have escaped alive. Even then, another Ascension quote may implied he chased this wife down, and promptly beat her to death with his own hands.
