Viktoria Lebedeva was born in 1939 in the city of Lyubotin in the Kharkov region to the family of a railroad engineer who, in 1942, as part of a large group of Lyubotinsky railway workers, was arrested by the Gestapo and died after interrogations and tortures.
In 1961 she graduated from the Philological Faculty of Chernovtsi State University.
Since 1969, she worked in the newspaper “Vecherniy Kharkov” as a proofreader, a correspondent for the culture department, later as a senior correspondent of the department of science and educational institutions, and then as a senior correspondent of the letters and reader relations department.
In 1988 she learned details about the events of the winter of 1941-1942 in Drobytsky Yar near Kharkov from P. Sokolsky and A. Kagan (who erected the first monument).
In 1989, her article in the newspaper “Vecherniy Kharkov” about the tragedy of Drobytsky Yar, “Let the grass of oblivion not rise ...”, became the first publication on this topic and influenced the formation of public opinion in favor of creating a memorial on the site of the tragedy. Thanks to her efforts, the newspaper monthly published a spread about Drobytsky Yar with the memories of those who escaped, with testimonies of eyewitnesses, essays of journalists.
In 1991, together with P. Sokolsky publishes the book “Say, Drobytsky Yar”. The contents of the book are archival documents, as well as memories of those few who managed to escape death and those who knew and remembered the dead - their neighbors, colleagues, relatives. In 2004 the book was published in a new edition called “Book of Memory Drobytsky Yar”.
In 1992 she was awarded with the Certificate of Honor and the second prize by the Kharkov branch of the Union of Journalists of Ukraine for her work on the Drobytsky Yar tragedy.
Actively participated in the work of the public committee “Drobytsky Yar”, covering the progress of the construction of the Memorial in the press, organizing and conducting public events dedicated to the Holocaust history in the city of Kharkov.
Since 1995 she worked in the regional research editorial board of the Memory Book of Ukraine. Due to her research of various archives, the lists of those killed in Drobytsky Yar were significantly expanded.
Viktoria Lebedeva still conducts an active research work in cooperation with the museum of local lore in town of Lyubotin.
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