Alexander Nikolaevich Bakulev was born on November 25, 1890, in the village of Nevenikovskaya, which is now located in the Slobodsky District of the Kirov Region. He came from an ancient Vyatka family of Bakulevs.

In 1911, Bakulev graduated from the First Vyatka Gymnasium and then from the medical faculty of Saratov University.

During World War I, he served as a junior doctor in the 80th Kabardin Regiment on the Western Front for two and a half years. For participating in a reconnaissance operation, he was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislaus 3rd class.

Since 1919, Bakulev worked as an intern at the university surgical clinic under the guidance of S. I. Spasokukotsky. In 1926, he began working at the Department of Surgery of the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute and became its head in 1943.

His professional activities covered areas of medicine such as kidney surgery, bone surgery, surgical treatment of peptic ulcers, as well as heart surgery and surgery for mediastinal and lung tumors. In 1948, he performed surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. Bakulev was also one of the first neurosurgeons in the USSR. He founded and became the first director of the Institute of Thoracic Surgery, which was later renamed the A. N. Bakulev Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery. Bakulev was one of the organizers of the Pirogov Readings.

From December 14, 1953, to January 29, 1960, he served as the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. He was a deputy of the Soviet Union Council from Moscow in the 4th and 5th convocations in 1954 and 1962.

Bakulev maintained friendly relations with I. V. Stalin's secretary A. N. Piskrebyshev.

He passed away on March 31, 1967, and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.