Golovachev joined the Red Army in the late 1920s and rose to infantry company commander before he was arrested during the Great Purge, but was released due to lack of evidence.

After fighting as in the Winter War as a battalion commander, Golovachev became a regimental chief of staff before the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.

His unit was destroyed in the first weeks of the war in the Uman pocket, and Golovachev led its remnants for several months behind German lines before joining a partisan detachment in late 1941.

Golovachev was born to a working-class family on 25 December 1909 in the settlement of Lyubokhna, Bryansky Uyezd, Oryol Governorate.

[2] He was released in October 1938 due to lack of evidence, and in February 1939 reinstated in the Red Army, returning to his previous position as a company commander in the 57th Regiment.

[2] After the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, Golavachev fought with his unit in the border battles and in fighting south of Stanislav he was seriously wounded on 27 June.

Golovachev escaped the pocket and made his way northeast, and by 6 November, with a group of 74 personnel, he reached the Bryansk area, where he joined a partisan detachment operating in Lyubokhny District, near his birthplace.

In the fighting to expand the bridgehead with relatively little artillery support, Golovachev continued the attack and quickly reached a line south of Szydłów.

For his "skillful leadership" of the brigade, Golovachev was given the title Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin on 23 September.