Yuri Alekseevich Lebedev was born November 21, 1936 in the city of Yaroslavl. He studied at the Yaroslavl Art School from 1953 to 1958 and later at the Repin Institute of Art in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) where he studied in the studio of professor and academician Andrei Mylnikov from 1962 to 1968. Upon his graduation in 1968, he moved to Astrakhan, Russia, where he continues to live and work. He was formerly married to artist Lidiya Lebedeva and their daughter is artist Anna Lebedeva. He became a member of the Artists’ Union of the USSR in 1971.