Nikita Golyi

Golyi, Nikita

 

Date of birth unknown; died 1709. Don cossack; one of the leaders of the Bulavin Uprising of 1707–09.

Golyi represented the interests of the poor rootless cos-sacks. He acted in collaboration with the Atamans S. Dranyi and S. Bespalyi. In June 1708 he was victorious in the battle against the Sumskii Regiment. After the death of K. Bulavin and Dranyi in 1708, he united the surviving insurgents (about 7,000 men) and continued the struggle against the tsarist troops in the region of the Severskii Donets. He tried to join Ataman Nekrasov, penetrate to the Volga, and rekindle the rebellion, but on Nov. 4, 1708, his forces were defeated. Golyi was seized, taken to Moscow, and probably executed.

REFERENCES

Bulavinskoe vosstanie (1707–1708). Collection of documents. Moscow, 1935.
Pod’iapol’skaia, E. P. Vosstanie Bulavina 1707–1709. Moscow, 1962.