Ivanov was born in what is now Northern Kazakhstan, 24 February, 1895, to a teacher’s family. When he was a child, Vsevolod ran away to become a clown in a traveling circus. His first story, published in 1915, caught the attention of Maxim Gorky, who advised Vsevolod throughout his career. Ivanov joined the Red Army during the Civil War and fought in Siberia. This inspired his short stories, Partisans (1921) and Armored Train (1922). In 1922 Ivanov joined the literary group known as the Serapion Brothers. Ivanov’s first two novels, Colored Winds (1922) and Azure Sands (1923), were set in the Asiatic part of Russia and gave rise to the genre of “ostern” in Soviet literature. His short story Baby was acclaimed by Edmund Wilson as the finest Soviet short story ever written.
Later, Ivanov came under fire from Bolshevik critics who claimed his works were too pessimistic and that it was not clear whether the Reds or Whites were the heroes. In 1927 Ivanov rewrote his short story, the Armored Train 14-69 into a play. This time, the play highlighted the role of the Bolsheviks in the Civil War. Among his later works are the Adventures of a Fakir (1935) and The Taking of Berlin (1945). During the Second World War, Ivanov worked as a war correspondent for Izvestia.