Due to his ability to make a brilliant career, in 1914 he was already a colonel and served as Head of the 12th Department of the General Staff.

[2] He participated in the planning and conduct of operations to defeat the White forces of Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin and Nikolai Yudenich.

He is considered one of the planners of the Orel–Kursk operation in October 1919, during which Denikin's offensive on Moscow was stopped and pushed back.

All that time during the Civil War, Lebedev worked in a very busy schedule, seven days a week, coming home at four o'clock in the morning.

In the years 1925–1928 the chief of staff and assistant commander of the Ukrainian Military District Iona Yakir.