The museum collection includes a postcard in the form of a black-and-white photograph. It depicts Pyotr Isidorovich Golikov, the father of Arkady Golikov, who would later become the famous writer Arkady Gaidar.
On July 18, 1914, Pyotr Golikov was called up for military service.
For a year and a half, Pyotr Isidorovich served as an ordinary soldier. Soon he was transferred to Kiev. On February 1, 1916, he enrolled in a four-month course at the First Kiev Military School. After graduation, he was assigned to the 183rd Infantry Regiment with the rank of ensign. Golikov served in this regiment from June 11, 1916 to January 1, 1917. The February Revolution found him in Riga, from where he was transferred to the 11th Rifle Regiment of the West Siberian Division. In the spring of 1917, he was on leave in Arzamas.
After the October Revolution of 1917, Pyotr Isidorovich was elected commissar of the 11th Siberian Regiment, as evidenced by the documents that are kept in the museum: “Pyotr Isidorovich Golikov is an actual commissar of the 11th Siberian Rifle Regiment, who is being sent to the congress in the city of Vidriz.“
On December 18, 1917, “Pyotr Isidorovich Golikov
was confirmed as the commander of the 11th Siberian Rifle Regiment.” In his
autobiography, written by Golikov in 1923 in Arzamas, he recalled,
