Nikolay Bogolyubov was born on 21 August 1909 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire to Russian Orthodox Church priest and seminary teacher of theology, psychology and philosophy Nikolay Mikhaylovich Bogolyubov, and Olga Nikolayevna Bogolyubova, a teacher of music. The Bogolyubovs relocated to the village of Velikaya Krucha in the Poltava Governorate (now in Poltava Oblast, Ukraine) in 1919, where the young Nikolay Bogolyubov began to study physics and mathematics. The family soon moved to Kiev in 1921, where they continued to live in poverty as the elder Nikolay Bogolyubov only found a position as a priest in 1923.