Lev Bashmakov was born on 26 February 1938 in the city of Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast.
From December 1988 to March 1990 he was chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ryazan Regional Council.
On 25 September 1991, Bashmakov was appointed first Governor of the administration of the Ryazan Oblast.
[2] In the autumn of 1993, he supported President Boris Yeltsin's actions aimed at dissolving the Congress of People's Deputies, the Supreme and local Soviets.
On 25 January 1994, he was dismissed from his post by decree of the President of the Russia with the wording "for the systematic excess of his powers, failure to ensure the implementation of presidential decrees aimed at establishing a market economy.