Mikhail Ivanov was born in Leningrad in 1918.

He joined the Red Army in 1937.

He served during the Soviet-Finnish Winter War in 153 IAP between 23 February and 13 March 1940, flying Polikarpov I-153s.

He was decorated for ”courage” in 1940. On 3 December 1941, he was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner.

Between 22 March and 12 June 1942, 153 IAP re-equipped with Bell P-39 Airacobras.

The 153 IAP (CO Sergey Mironov) arrived at Voronezh airfield on 29 June 1942. It began combat operations without any delay, on 30 June 1942.
During the day, Ivanov claimed two Bf 109s destroyed.

On 4 July, the Airacobras from 153 IAP fought with Bf 109s in the Vyaznovatovka area. Starshiy leitenant Ivanov and Adam Amkoladze claimed one each west of Vyaznovatovka while Aleksandr Avdeyev claimed one north of Vyaznovatovka.

Starshiy leitenant Ivanov and Viktor Karpukhin claimed a shared Bf 109 south of Otrozhka on 28 July.

On 6 August 1942, kapitan Sergey Mironov, starshiy leitenant Ivanov and leitenant Anatoliy Kislyakov claimed a shared MC.200 over Podkletnoye together with a fourth pilot.

He was decorated with a second Order of the Red Banner on 13 September 1942.

153 IAP became 28 GIAP on 22 November 1942.

On 29 December 1942, starshiy leitenant Ivanov failed to return from a combat mission.

At the time of his death, Ivanov was credited with 1 biplane victory and a total of 8.
These had been claimed during approximately 250 combat missions and 20 air combats.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	01/12/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	I-153		Leningrad Front	153 IAP
	1942
2	30/06/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Airacobra		Nizhne-Devitsk	153 IAP
3	30/06/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Airacobra		Kondor	153 IAP
4	04/07/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Airacobra		W Vyaznovatovka	153 IAP
5	28/07/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Airacobra		SW Voronezh	153 IAP
	28/07/42		1/2	Bf 109	Shared destroyed	Airacobra		S Otrozhka	153 IAP
	06/08/42		1/4	MC.200	Shared destroyed	Airacobra		Podkletnoye	153 IAP
6	09/08/42		1	Hs 126	Destroyed	Airacobra		Yekaterinovka	153 IAP
7	09/08/42		1	MC.200	Destroyed	Airacobra		Donishche	153 IAP
8	21/08/42		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Airacobra		N Ivanovka	153 IAP

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed.
TOTAL: 8 and 2 shared destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936–1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov