Utkin was born on 13 May at the Khingan station (in modern Yakeshi) of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which his parents were helping to construct.

After his birth the family returned to their native city Irkutsk, where the future poet lived until 1920.

In 1919 during the anti-Kolchak uprising in Irkutsk he became a member of the Workers Guard (Communist guerrillas) until the re-establishment of Soviet power.

In 1920 he enlisted as a volunteer with the first group of Irkutsk Komsomol members for the Soviet Far East Front.

In spite of the opinions of his physicians he returned to the front, although he had lost four fingers on his right hand.