Burdenko, Nikolai nilovich was born in the village of Kamenka of the Penza province into the family managing the estate of a landlord. Graduated from the Penza Seminary, he entered the St. Petersburg theological Academy. However, disappointed in his spiritual career, had dropped out of the Academy and entered the medical faculty of Tomsk University (1897). In 1906 he graduated from Yuryev University in Tartu. As a student, he participated in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) as a physician assistant in the detachment of the red cross.
