Jorpes graduated in 1914 and entered the University of Helsinki to become a doctor, although his parents wished him a priest. Jorpes finished his medical studies in 30 January 1918, just a few days after the outbreak of the Finnish Civil War. Jorpes did not support the idea of an armed revolution, but joined the Red Guards medical staff as he saw it was his duty to help the wounded. After the Battle of Tampere on 6 April, tens of thousands of Red refugees fled from the western parts of Red Finland. Jorpes and his patients were evacuated from Turku to the eastern Finnish town of Vyborg. They were soon transported to Soviet Russia, and finally Jorpes ended up working as a doctor in the Buy refugee camp, set for the Finnish Reds in the Kostroma Governorate. In August 1918, Jorpes attended the founding congress of the exile Communist Party of Finland in Moscow.