After the revolution of 1917 Fr. Vladimir went into retirement. But a year later he returned to priestly service and organized a parish in the village of Novo-Spassky, where a small church was built through his efforts. In 1920 he moved to the village of Zagorye, Kineshma uyezd, where for two years he occupied himself with organizing the parish and building the church.
In 1924 Fr. Nicholas was arrested, and sentenced to three years in exile. When he returned, Bishop [Saint] Basil of Kineshma, who greatly valued Fr. Vladimir's faithfulness to the canons of the Church, consecrated a house church that Fr. Vladimir had built in Shiryaevo. It was then, in 1926, that he was tonsured with the name Nicholas.
In October, 1926, Fr. Nicholas went to Nizhni-Novgorod, where he met Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), who suggested that he accept the rank of bishop.
"My health is weak," replied the priest, "and I will not be able to carry out all my duties."
"That doesn't matter," said the metropolitan. "Vetluga is a small diocese, and you will manage."
Fr. Nicholas agreed, and in a few days he was consecrated as Bishop of Vetluga in the monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross by Metropolitan Sergius, Bishop [Saint] Basil (Preobrazhensky) and Bishop Alexander (Shukin).
Bishop Nicholas was distinguished by his charity and simplicity; he helped the local inhabitants as far as he was able. Once a poor woman from Shiryaevo came and asked his help. Vladyka had no money, but he took off his ryasa and gave it to her, saying: "Take it and sell it, and use the money you get for your needs."
In August of 1927 the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius was published, and Bishop Nicholas took an uncompromisingly negative attitude towards it.
“The point is not to save that which is earthly,” he said, “but to save the soul, and not destroy it. Even the whole world is not important to us, and for Orthodoxy not even all the world’s possessions are as important as the unharmed soul of a man. The Lord did not shed His innocent blood and die for the Synod or for the hierarchy, but for the human soul, to save it.”
Vladyka then applied to Metropolitan Sergius to be allowed to retire on account of his health. And on February the 2nd, 1928 his request was accepted. Now Vladyka devoted himself entirely to serving in his house church in Shiryaevo. Up to three hundred people used to gather in the small house in the woods.
In February of 1928 the Epistle of the Yaroslavl hierarchs* appeared, which encouraged Bishop Nicholas in his opposition to Metropolitan Sergius. He began to invite the priests of the Kineshma diocese and explain to them the wrongness of the declaration. However, there were few who listened to him.
[*This Epistle was signed by Metropolitan (Saint) Agathangelus of Yaroslavl, Archbishop (Saint) Seraphim of Uglich, Archbishop (Saint) Barlaam of Perm, and Bishop (Saint) Eugene of Rostov.]
According to one (dubious) source, Vladyka Nicholas signed the decisions of the so-called “Nomadic Council” of the Catacomb Church, which took place between March and August of 1928.
At the beginning of the summer of 1929 Bishop Nicholas went to Petrograd, where he received a document from Archbishop [Saint] Demetrius (Lyubimov) of Gdov that was discovered during a search:
“The owner of this, Bishop Nicholas (Golubev), formerly of Vetluga, now retired, belongs to the Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan [Saint] Peter [of Krutitsa] and in canonical communion with Metropolitan [Saint] Joseph [of Petrograd]. [Signed:] Temporary administrator of the Leningrad diocese, Demetrius of Gdov. 1 June, 1929.”
On returning to the village he began to summon the priests of the Kineshma vicariate by letters and messengers, and when they arrived, he tried to persuade them to leave Metropolitan Sergius.
He criticized the commemoration of the Soviet authorities, saying that believers could not send up prayers of thanksgiving to God for an authority which destroyed churches and persecuted religion. And he himself had the following form of commemoration: “For the suffering prisoners, Metropolitans and Bishops Peter, Joseph, Basil and others”.
During sermons he would often repeat: “As a citizen I am loyal to Soviet power, but as a believer I cannot recognize it, insofar as it destroys religion.” During a search in his home the texts of two “antisoviet” prayers received from Bishop Basil and Archbishop Demetrius were found.
The following priests joined the Josephite** movement in Kineshma region in 1928-29:
[**Josephite was the name given by outsiders to the Catacomb Church under St. Joseph of Petrograd.]
Fr. Constantine V. Razumov in the church in Kineshma itself; Fr. John A. Narbekov in the church of the meeting in Yuryevich; Hieromonk Alexis Golubev in the village of Mavrino; Fr. John I. Rumyantsev in the village of Voskresenskoye in Kineshma region; Fr. Michael P. Uspensky in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki and Fr. Alexander N. Yakovlev in the village of Nikolo-Korba. According to one source, the priest Fr. Paul Krasnopevtsev and a deacon also joined Bishop Nicholas.
On uniting themselves to him they had to sign a document declaring: "I, the undersigned, having become convinced of Metropolitan Sergius' departure from the spirit of Orthodox Christianity, break all spiritual communion with him and enter into communion with the Church led by Metropolitans Peter and Joseph. I wish to be, with the flock entrusted to me, under the spiritual leadership of Bishop Nicholas."
On the night of September 8 to 9, 1929, Bishop Nicholas was arrested by the GPU “in connection with the Yaroslavl branch of the True Orthodox Church” and was interrogated immediately.
The bishop stated that he did not share the views expressed in Metropolitan Sergius' declaration on the relationship between Church and State. The Confessor thus boldly declared:
"'Your success' he [Sergius] said - these words of his I consider to be the success of Soviet power in its struggle with religion. 'Your joys are our joys' - I consider the struggle with religion to be not joy, but sorrow, and the same as regards his words 'let us pray for the powers that be', 'that we may live in peace and piety'. This expression can in no way be joined with religious feelings. Concerning the atheists, we must pray that God may enlighten them and open to them the knowledge of the truth, but religion cannot live with them in piety, since they are destroyers of religion, and I as a religious person cannot live in peace with them spiritually."
The bishop was incarcerated in one cell with the priest Fr. Basil Zelentsov, whom Vladyka knew well, and with some priests from Yaroslavl - in particular, Archimandrite Sergius (Ozerov), the priest Fr. Basil Dobrovolsky and the layman Victor Rozov.
Vladyka Nicholas courageously confessed his views in prison: "Soviet power," he said, "is an unlawful power, it only oppresses the Church. But in any case it will not last long, it will not succeed in retaining power for long."
Vladyka fell seriously ill in prison, and on October the 21st he was released and went to his house in Shiryaevo, while remaining under arrest. On the 3rd of January, 1930 the OGPU heard the cases of Archbishop [Saint] Barlaam (Ryashentsev), Bishop Nicholas (Golubev), Archimandrite Sergius (Ozerov) and others, in all thirty-three people.
The court decided, in accordance with articles 58-10 and 58-11, to deprive Bishop Nicholas of the right to reside in Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, Kiev and two other cities and the areas adjoining them for three years, and he was confined to a particular place of residence.
However, Bishop Nicholas had already reposed a month before the sentence was passed, on the 5th of December, 1929. He was buried in the woods not far from the village of Shiryaevo, next to his house church.