Zyryanov joined the
Red Army in September 1924. He graduated from the Omsk Infantry School Named after M.V. Frunze in 1927. From 1927 to 1934, he served in the 9th Siberian Infantry Regiment of the
Joint State Political Directorate troops in
Novosibirsk and became member of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He later served as platoon commander from September 1927 and became member of the assistant chief of staff of the regiment from June 1930. In January 1933, he was appointed as head of the regimental school. In August 1945, during the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria, he led the district border guards based in Primorsky Krai to capture and destroy Japanese border detachments and garrisons located near the Soviet border with
Manchukuo, capture and hold crossings across
Amur and
Ussuri rivers, and conduct offensive operations together with military units in the border. All these tasks were successfully accomplished by the troops of the district with minimal combat losses. On 28 May 1956, Zyryanov was transferred to
KGB under the
Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union and was appointed deputy head of the 3rd Main Directorate of the KGB. From October to November 1956, he was stationed in the
Hungarian People's Republic, where he took an active role in crushing of the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The twenty-year tenure of Zyryanov as chief of the Soviet Border Troops was assessed in most modern publications as positive and reformist. Ensuring reliable protection of the state border, Zyryanov carried out the reorganization and rearmament of the troops, ensuring their equipment was at the most modern level. He was the author of the idea of creating mobile maneuverable firing units in the most dangerous sections of the border for rapid build-up of forces in an event of a threat of violation to the border. This idea was rejected by Zyryanov's successor Vadim Matrosov, but later it was implemented during the
Soviet-Afghan War. In December 1972, he retired from military service. ==Later life==