Butova (nee last name unknown) was born near Yaroslavl, Russia, into the family of the director of a shipbuilding factory. Upon graduating from Yaroslavl College of Chemistry and Mechanics, she moved to study architecture at Kyiv Institute of Engineering and Construction. Butova married a marine officer, Sergey Butov. In the 1950s and the 60s, the family lived in Sevastopol, Crimea, where Butova became (with Valentin Artyukhov) a chief architect of the city’s masterplan and postwar reconstruction. In the city, she planned monumental avenues, streets, and fountains.

In 1969, Butova followed her husband to Moscow, where she began working at the Giprogor institute (the State Institute of Urban Design). In 1970, following the earthquake in Makhachkala (Dagestan), Butova headed the work on the city’s reconstruction. In the early 1970s, while based in Moscow, she was appointed chief architect of the master plan of Staryi Oskol (Belgorod region), where the largest electric steelwork plant in Europe was under construction. In addition to the masterplan of the city, she designed Molodezhnyi palace of culture, Byl’ cinema, the Park of Metalworkers, planned residential neighborhoods (micro-districts), and streets. “The street of architect Butova” in Staryi Oskol is named after her.                   

Butova was a member of the Steering Committee of the Union of Soviet Architects. In addition to her architectural work, she was a renowned popularizer of architecture, who gave numerous public lectures. She was also a painter (her work was shown in exhibitions of paintings of the Union of Soviet Architects) and poet.