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.