Nikolai Nikolayevich Golovin (; 4 December 1875 – 10 January 1944) was an

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

general and military historian.

Biography

Since 1908 Golovin was professor of tactics at the General Staff Academy. At the beginning of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Golovin commanded the Grodno Hussar regiment. Later he was transferred to staff of general

Platon Lechitsky Platon Alekseevich Lechitsky (; 18 March 1856 – 2 February 1921) was a Russian general. Biography Born in the Grodno province in the family of a rural priest Alexei Nikolaevich and Sofia Alexandrovna (née Pavlovskaya) Lechitsky. His father ...

's 9th Army as Quartermaster-General (Director of operations), and in 1916 as Chief of Staff of 7th Army. In 1917 he was Chief of Staff of the

Romanian Front The Romanian Front (, FR) was a moderate fascist party created in Romania in 1935. Led by former Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, it originated as a right-wing splinter group from the mainstream National Peasants' ...

. After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

and break-up of the army he retired to Odessa where he lived in obscurity until the victory of the Allies and opening of the Black Sea allowed him to come to Western Europe. In autumn 1919 he travelled from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

through

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

to join Admiral

Aleksandr Kolchak List of Russian admirals, Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (; – 7 February 1920) was a Russian navy officer and Arctic exploration, polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ru ...

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

. It was assumed that Golovin would be the Chief of Staff of Kolchak's army. But when he arrived at

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

, Kolchak's army was already retreating in disarray. Golovin decided that the situation was hopeless and did not take command, returning to Vladivostok and Europe. While living as an emigre in Paris he authored numerous books and articles on military theory and military history. He collected documents on Russian history for the

Hoover library The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and burial place of Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States (1929–1933), located on the grounds of the Herbert Hoover National Historic S ...

. With the help of

Vasily Maklakov Vasily Alekseyevich Maklakov (; – July 15, 1957) was a Russian student activist, a trial lawyer and liberal parliamentary deputy, an orator, and one of the leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, notable for his advocacy of a constitu ...

the

Okhrana The Department for the Protection of Public Safety and Order (), usually called the Guard Department () and commonly abbreviated in modern English sources as the Okhrana ( rus , Охрана, p=ɐˈxranə, a=Ru-охрана.ogg, t= The Guard) w ...

-archive was transferred. Golovin's personal collection of documents was also deposited in the Hoover Institution's archive.Register of the Nikolai Nikolaevich Golovin Papers, 1912-1943
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Works

Books

The problem of the Pacific in the twentieth century
1922. (co-authored with Andrei Bubnov) * The Russian Army in World War I. New Haven,

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, 1931. * ''The Russian Campaign of 1914: The Beginnings of the War and Operations in East Prussia''. Fort Leavenworth, KS, The Command and General Staff School Press, 1933. * Air strategy. 1936.

Articles

Great battle for Galicia: A Study in Strategy
The Slavonic Review, Vol. 5, No. 13 (Jun., 1926), pp. 25–47 * Brusilov's Offensive: The Galician Battle of 1916.

The Slavonic and East European Review ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', the journal of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (University College London), is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Slavonic and East European Studies. It was estab ...

, Vol. 13, No. 39 (Apr., 1935), pp. 571–596 * The Russian War Plan of 1914.

, Vol. 14, No. 42 (Apr., 1936), pp. 564–584. * The Russian War Plan of 1914: II. The Execution of the Plan.

, Vol. 15, No. 43 (Jul., 1936), pp. 70–90

References

Literature

* Timothy C. Dowling. Golovin, Nikolai (1875–1944) // Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond volumes — ABC-CLIO, 2014. — P. 311. — 1166 p. — . * Головин, Николай Николаевич // Военная энциклопедия : � 18 т./ под ред. В. Ф. Новицкого � др. — СПб. ; �.: Тип. т-ва И. Д. Сытина, 1911—1915.

n Russian N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

* Залесский К. А. Головин Николай Николаевич // Кто был кто в первой мировой войне. Биографический энциклопедический словарь. М., 2003.

* Порохин С. Генерального штаба Генерал-лейтенант, профессор Головин Николай Николаевич // Посев. — 2011. — Вып. 10 (1609). — С. 41-44. — ISSN 0234-8284.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golovin, Nikolai 1875 births 1944 deaths Writers from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Nobility from the Russian Empire Imperial Russian lieutenant generals Russian military personnel of World War I Russian All-Military Union members Military theorists 19th-century historians from the Russian Empire Military writers from the Russian Empire Historians of World War I White Russian emigrants to France Imperial Nikolayev Military Academy alumni