 In spring of 1918 he was a chairman of the Soviet government of the Luhansk Oblast and then the Donetsk-Kryvoi Rog Republic.During the Russian Civil War, Lutovinov served at the Red Army and was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine.He was in the central committee of the Russian Metalworkers' Union and a member of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions.