Appointed military commissar of the training school of the 9th Volga Regiment, Rakutin fought in the Russian Civil War on the Eastern Front against the forces of Alexander Kolchak.

Rakutin's unit was forced to retreat into East Prussia with the 4th Army by the Polish counteroffensive of August 1920 and in 1921 he returned to the Soviet Union from an internment camp there.

Later that year, Rakutin fought against White and Japanese forces with the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic, serving as a company commander of the 5th Chita Regiment.

Appointed chief of the Separate Okhotsk Border Commandant's Service and simultaneous deputy chairman of the Okhotsky District Executive Committee in 1927, he distinguished himself in the suppression of the Yakut revolt that year.

Appointed chief of staff of the Directorate of NKVD Border Troops of the Leningrad District in September of that year, he served as assistant commander of the forces of the 15th Army for rear protection during the Winter War.

During the attempted breakout of the army from the encirclement, Rakutin was killed in action near the village of Semlyovo [ru], Smolensk Oblast on 7 October.

For his "courage and heroism displayed in the struggle against the German Fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War," Rakutin was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin on 5 May 1990.