Habrus was born in Minsk in 1945. She graduated from Belarusian Polytechnic Institute in architecture in 1968, moving to work as architect at Belprampraekt, where she designed industrial buildings for Minsk, Brest, and Navagrudok (1968-1970).

Between 1969 and 1973, Habrus was enrolled into the doctoral program of Kondrat Krapiva Institute of Art History, Ethnography and Folklore of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. In 1973-1974, she was a senior preservationist at Special Scientific-Restauration Production Workshops of the Ministry of Culture of Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. At this time, she worked on the conservation of Ruzhany Palace, a late-eighteenth-century palace destroyed during the second world war, and on the restoration of the museum “The Home of Jakub Kolas.”

Between 1974 and 1979, Habrus worked at the publishing house of Belarusian Soviet Encyclopedia as the academic editor for architecture. Having received her doctoral degree in 1979, she become the acting chief editor for culture and art. Since 1980, Habrus worked as a senior researcher at Kondrat Krapiva Institute of Art History, Ethnography and Folklore. Between 1981 and 1995, Habrus headed the section of architecture at Minsk city and regional councils of Belarusian voluntary society for the preservation of monuments of history and culture. In 2003, she received her secondary doctorate and became a leading researcher at the institute. Gabrus’s scholarship focused on the history of sacral architecture in Belarus between the middle ages and the eighteenth century. 

Habrus has also published collections of poetry in Belarusian language.