Previously, her father Nikolai Levchenko, an electrician by trade, had held been the Deputy People's Commissar of Railways in the country, but he was arrested as part of the Great Purge on 30 November 1937 and eventually executed in April 1938.

Her grandmother Mariya Zubkova-Saraeva was a recipient of the Order of the Red Banner for service during the Russian Civil War.

[1][2] After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Levchenko went to a local Red Cross facility and requested work to help the war effort.

After much bureaucratic delay was able to secure a meeting with General Yakov Fedorenko, who initially refused to support her endeavor but eventually agreed to give her permission to attend tank school if she received a medical certificate indicating her to be fit.

Despite injuries from battle having given her the status of invalid second class and nearly led to amputation of her right arm, she successfully persuaded a medical officer to issue such certificate, and in July 1942 she enrolled in the Stalingrad Tank School, which was relocated to Kurgan in the Urals due to the ongoing battle for the Stalingrad at the time.

Due to the severity of the injury, she was kept away from the military until recovering in February 1945, after which she was redeployed as a liaison officer in the 8th Mechanized Corps to participate in the East Pomeranian and Berlin operations.

Having retired from active duty with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1958, she continued her writing career as a member of the Writer’s Union of the USSR.