In 1916 he graduated from the Miass Higher Primary Urban School, after which he worked at a local factory as a draftsman-copymaker and assistant locksmith.

In February 1918, he joined the Bolsheviks and in March of the same year became the editor of the newspaper Izvestia of the city of Miass Zavod.

At the same time, he was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic and took part in hostilities against the troops under the command of ataman Semyonov and Baron Ungern.

In the fall of 1924, Bakulin was sent to study at the Higher Military-Political Academic Courses named after Nikolay Tolmachyov, after which in May 1925 he was at the disposal of the intelligence department of the Red Army headquarters, and then sent to China, where he served as military adviser, in the Central Group of Soviet Military advisers, and also taught in a special school, where he trained personnel for the Chinese army.

On March 7, 1939, Bakulin was convicted of espionage, participating in a counter-revolutionary organization, preparing a terrorist act, and sentenced to capital punishment by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.