Born on 20 December 1838 (1 January 1839) on the estate Staraya Ves in the Hungrovsky district of the Sedletsk province (another date of birth is also indicated - 20 October 1838 and the place of birth - the village of Garbów, Lublin district, Lublin province) ... His parents: father - Prince Sergei Grigorievich (1803-1868), retired captain of the Guards artillery, writer; mother - Maria Ivanovna, nee Countess Ezerskaya (1819-1881).

Brothers and sisters: Julia (1840-1914, maid of honor), Maria (1841-1896, married to the chamberlain of the Austrian court, Count Friedrich Rummerskirch), Catherine (1844-1864), Lev (1845-1915, chief winemaker of the Main Directorate of estates), Fedor (1850-1920, chamberlain, leader of the nobility of the Khvalynsky district of the Saratov province).

After graduating from the course at the Academy on 18 December 1860, he was appointed to be at the main headquarters of the Caucasian army; On 19 January 1861, he was promoted to captain for advances in science.

In March–May he was in the Abinsky gorge and was engaged in correcting the roads between the camp of the detachment and the fortifications of Nikolayevsky, Crimean and Olginsky, all these activities were accompanied by numerous skirmishes with the mountaineers.

On 22 January 1862, Golitsyn was promoted to lieutenant colonel and, after serving in the spring and summer in staff positions in Tbilisi, on 16 September, he was transferred to the Life Grenadier Erivan Regiment, where he took the post of commander of the combined rifle battalion.

The unprincipled, but not mediocre publicist Vasily Velichko, editor of the official newspaper Kavkaz, became the main ideologist of the Golitsyn course.

According to the law, all immovable property (including the territory of the Echmiadzin Monastery) and capital belonging to the Armenian Church and spiritual institutions were transferred to the jurisdiction of the state.

[5] On 14 October of the same year, General Golitsyn was seriously wounded on the Kojorskoe highway near Tiflis as a result of a terrorist act committed by members of the Armenian Social Democratic Party "Hnchak".