Nikolai shugay was born in Kolochava on April 3, 1898. He was the eldest son of a woodcutter's family. Illiterate, didn't go to school. The villagers remembered him as a cheerful guy, but considered him a bully. In 1917, he defected from the army. Soon he was caught and sent back to the army, from where he managed to escape again. Once shugay killed two Czech gendarmes who were going to catch him. Since that time, for Nikolai and his younger brother Yuri, the forest has become home. Soon, the pregnant wife of Nicholas Ergy arrested, and hamlet Kolochava Lazy put a contribution in the amount of 15 thousand Koruna. In the vicinity of the village, a pass regime was introduced, and all the farmers were issued personal identification cards. All crimes in the vicinity were automatically attributed to the Shugai. At the end of 1920, Nicholas was suspected of killing a kolochavsky gendarme, in February 1921, he was credited with killing a fellow villager, and in March – 4 Jews from the village of soyma. The investigation proved that shugay killed his neighbor Ivan Derbak and burned down his house.