Bakarinov was born in Moscow on 8 May 1938. During the early 1960s he was one of many top Soviet hammer throwers, together with Vasily Rudenkov, Romuald Klim, Yuriy Nikulin, Gennadiy Kondrashov, Anatoliy Samotsvetov and Aleksey Baltovskiy; he was ranked in the world's top 10 for five consecutive years from 1960 to 1964, but faced strong competition for spots on the national team. In 1962 he threw 66.57 m at the European Championships in Belgrade, winning bronze behind Hungary's Gyula Zsivótzky (who set a new European record of 69.64 m) and Baltovskiy. Bakarinov's best throw that year, 68.90 m, ranked him third on the world year list and first in the Soviet Union.