He began working in railroad maintenance at the age of twelve, while continuing to study during his spare time.

Three years later, when he completed his studies, he was assigned to the Ural Military District as an assistant to the chief of operations.

[1][2] Shortly after the beginning of the German-Soviet War on 22 June 1941, Colonel Ivanov was appointed operations chief of the 13th Army and took part in the Battle of Białystok–Minsk.

[4] He became a major general and the Southwestern Front's chief of operations on 14 October, and participated in the Battle of Stalingrad.

[5][2] On 11 November 1943, Ivanov was relieved from his post after making two contradictory reports to Moscow on the military situation in Fastiv Raion, without noticing that he was submitting data on the same region on both occasions.

[7] In late June, Ivanov was transferred to the Far East Command, where he served as Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky's chief of staff during the Soviet–Japanese War.

[14] In 1963, when Colonel Oleg Penkovsky was arrested, Ivanov committed negligence in his work; Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that he did not recall the exact deed, but that it might have ended in a security risk.