Mobilized in Red Army in July 1931 by the party, he was called up and sent to military education; in 1933 he graduated from the 7th Stalingrad Military Aviation School. From 1933 he  was an instructor pilot in the same military aviation school; from 1935 he was the commander of the crew of the TB-3 heavy bomber of the 45th air brigade of the Moscow Military District. In 1937 he  was the commander of the TB-3 heavy bomber. From 1937 to 1939 he studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy of the Red Army. From January 1939  Ivashutin began to work in the counterintelligence agencies of the Red Army. He served in the apparatus of the special department of the NKVD of the Western Military District; and from 1940 as the head of the special department of the NKVD of the 23rd Rifle Division in the Leningrad Military District. He participated in the Soviet-Finnish War.