After the Russian Revolution, he was a military advisor for the Red Guards in the 1918 Finnish Civil War.

During World War I, Bulatsel fought against the Germans on the Eastern Front but caught typhoid and returned to Finland.

[1] As the Finnish Civil War started in January 1918, Bulatsel was the Commander of the 1st Brigade of the 106th division in Tampere.

In late February, Hugo Salmela replaced Mikhail Svechnikov as the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Guards.

Bulatsel's two sons, 13-year-old Woldemar and 15-year-old Nikolai, were shot just a couple of days later in the Vyborg massacre.