Golikov was a brigadier-scout of the 67th detachment of the Fourth Leningrad Partisan Brigade that operated in the Novgorod and Pskov regions.

On 13 August 1942, Golikov returned from a reconnaissance mission along the Luga-Pskov highway near the village of Varnitsy in the Strugo-Krasnensky district, and reportedly tossed a grenade to blow up the car in which German Major General of the Engineering Troops Richard von Wirtz was travelling.

Among them were drawings and descriptions of new samples of German mines, inspection reports to higher command, and other important military papers.

For a long time, it was believed that Golikov's photographs did not survive and that his sister, Lida, posed for the portrait created by Viktor Fomin in 1958.

Vakhov's book contains a photograph of Golikov on page 61, taken behind enemy lines by a LenTASS correspondent, as evidenced by a stamp in the lower right corner.

As G. Svetlov, a former political instructor of the reconnaissance company of the 3rd Leningrad Partisan Brigade, said, ...when the journalist Korolkov began collecting materials about Golikov, Vakhov's book was not in bookstores or libraries.