After her family moved to Kropotkin city in 1932, she went on to complete her seventh grade of school in 1939 and get a job at a canteen in a railway depot before the war.

[1][2] After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Kostyrina attended sharpshooting training under Osoaviakhim in hopes of being accepted into the Red Army.

When German forces advanced towards Kropotkin in August 1942, she enlisted in the army and was deployed as part of the 691st Infantry Regiment.

On 8 November 1943 she was deployed with her regiment to land on the Chushka split, where they eventually made their way to Opasnoe, Kerch, advancing into Crimea.

Throughout the war she fought in various battles as well as amphibious landings including the Armavir-Maykop, Tuapse, Krasnodar, Novorossiysk-Taman, and Kerch-Eltigen operations.