Gul was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army in 1916 and served with the infantry on the South Western Front becoming a company commander in the 417th Kinburn Regiment.

He also worked on the magazines Life (Жизнь), Time (Время), The Russian Emigrant (Русский эмигрант) and Voice of Russia (Голос России).

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Gul was arrested and put into the Oranienburg concentration camp near Berlin, but was freed after six months and emigrated to Paris.

In France, he wrote for the liberal émigré newspaper Posledniye Novosti (Последние новости) and the magazines Illustrirovannaya Rossiya (Иллюстрированнaя Россия), Sovremennye zapiski (Современныe записки).

Gul emigrated to the United States in 1950 and worked for the émigré literature magazine Novy Zhurnal becoming chief editor in 1966.