Born in 1908, Kulakov initially began studying in Kiev for a career as a railway worker, before coming into contact with the navy through the local Komsomol.

The heavy human cost of these brought the Military Council under investigation and Kulakov suffered his first demotion, from rear-admiral to captain 1st rank, and reassignment.

Kulakov himself was demoted shortly afterwards for "unsatisfactory leadership of party political work", but once more returned to prominence and former rank with service with the Black Sea Fleet.

Here he rebuilt his career in the navy's political department once more, returning to the rank of vice-admiral and being awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

[3] In April 1940 Kulakov became a member of the Military Council of the Black Sea Fleet, and on 8 August 1940 was appointed a divisional commissioner.

[1] With the German advance to the Black Sea, Kulakov helped to organise the preparation of defences for Odessa, and when that city fell, those of Sevastopol.

[2][3] Kulakov had a hand in organising the amphibious assaults against Novorossiysk, including that led by Tsezar Kunikov, but the heavy losses sustained in the Kerch–Eltigen Operation brought official disapproval, and the Military Council was condemned as unsatisfactory.

With the help of the Navy's Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Nikolay Kuznetsov, Kulakov was in June 1944 appointed Head of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Main Political Directorate, and restored to his rank of rear-admiral on 21 July 1944.

Kuznetsov recalled how "The voice of the prosecutor N. M. Kulakov, who had already called us all sorts of obscene words, still demanded that we be punished as strictly as possible.

[3] Despite Kulakov's loyal participation in the trial, in December 1949 he too was accused, this time of "unsatisfactory leadership of party political work in the 8th Fleet" and was again demoted to rear admiral and dismissed from his post.

[2] A memorial plaque to Kulakov was installed on the building of the Kiev Higher Vocational School of Railway Transport where he had studied, and a street in Sevastopol was named after him.