Nikolai Mikhailovich Kochergin (1897–1974) was a Soviet artist, book illustrator and poster designer who worked across political posters, graphic art, theatre design and monumental painting. He was particularly known for his illustrations of Russian folk tales, epics and children's literature, combining expressive drawing with detailed narrative compositions.

Kochergin was born on 9 May 1897 and studied at the Stroganov Art and Industrial School. In 1918 he volunteered for the Red Army and was assigned to the Higher School of Military Disguise. During the early years of Soviet rule, he became involved in political poster art and propaganda, producing posters including Enemy at the Gate!!! Everyone to Defend Petrograd (1919), English Peacekeepers (1920), Wrangel Is Coming!! To Arms, Proletarians!! (1920) and Long Live the Brotherhood of the Peoples of the Caucasus! (1920).

From 1922, Kochergin lived and worked in Petrograd, later Leningrad. He became a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in 1923 and worked across several forms of graphic art. He produced cartoons and contributed illustrations and designs to periodicals including Red Panorama, Ogonyok, Around the World and World of Adventures. He also designed theatrical productions, including performances for Leningrad puppet theatres.

During the Second World War, Kochergin continued to produce political posters and worked on the TASS Windows series in besieged Leningrad. In 1942, suffering from serious illness, he was evacuated across the ice of Lake Ladoga, while his family was evacuated to Frunze. After the war, he returned to large-scale painting, producing monumental works including Novgorod Is Ours (1946), Leningraders (1948) and Assault on the Winter Palace (1950). In 1947, he also produced a series of watercolours devoted to the naval history of Russia, now held by the Central Naval Museum in St Petersburg.

From the late 1940s, Kochergin increasingly concentrated on book illustration, particularly children's literature, Russian folklore and epic narratives. His illustrations accompanied works including Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1928), Russian Heroes (1949), Kalevala (1953), The Little Humpbacked Horse (1953), collections of Asian and Russian fairy tales, Sivka-Burka (1959), Ivan the Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf (1961) and Evgeny Schwartz's Two Brothers (1962). He was awarded the title Honoured Artist of the RSFSR and continued working across illustration and graphic art until his death in Leningrad on 10 May 1974.