Career
Ivanova was born in Yessentuki. Great-niece of the poet Vyacheslav Ivanov. In 1937 she entered the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and Art (the institute), department of Russian literature.
In 1938 she was accepted into the auxiliary of the troupe of the Moscow Art Academic Theater of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Gorky.
In 1957 she returned to the Moscow Art Theater, where she served until 1985. Since 1958 she has been teaching at the Moscow Art Theater School.
Among her students are Natalia Egorova, Boris Nevzorov and Nikolai Karachentsov.