[3] Besides a brief period during World War II when she lived in Moscow, Polyakova spent her entire life in Saint Petersburg.

Between 1941 and 1944, she worked at the Soviet Information Bureau in Moscow, but when the war ended, she returned to Leningrad and resumed her position at the university.

Polyakova shared an apartment with Irina Vladimirovna Felenkovskaya (Russian: Ирина Владимировна Феленковская) and their dogs.

[12][13] Later scholars of both women poets, like Diana Burgin and Simon Karlinsky drew heavily from Polyakova's work in their biographies[14] and her scholarship revived academic interest in Parnok in both the United States and later in Russia.

[4][16] Posthumously several of her works were published[11][17] and her papers were filed at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.