Leonid Bykov was born in the Znamenka village into a peasant family of Feodor Ivanovich Bykov and Zinaida Pankratovna Bykova, who shared the same surname. He had an elder sister, Luisa (born 1927). His father was a simple laborer who took part in the World War I and the Russian Civil War and in 1930 moved his family to Kramatorsk to work at the local steel mill, and where Leonid finished the secondary school.[3]
Bykov initially attempted to become a military pilot. He later studied at Kharkiv Theater Institute from 1946 to 1951 and joined the troupe of the Taras Shevchenko Theater in Kharkiv, working on stage until 1960. He received recognition initially with the supporting role of an unsophisticated countryman in Marina's Destiny (1953). His other notable performances included Petya Mokin in Aleksandr Ivanovski's and Nadezhda Kosheverova's blockbuster comedy Tamer of Tigers (1955) and in the title role of Maksim Perepelitsa (1956). Bykov also appeared as a hopeless romantic in films such as Yuri Egorov's Volunteers (1958), Stanislav Rostotskii's May Stars (1961), and Iosif Kheifits's My Dear Man (1958). As a director, Bykov debuted at Lenfilm Studio in 1962 with the
10-minute satire However the Rope Is Twisted (co-directed by Gerbert Rappaport), which skewered
absurdities of the Soviet economy. The popular comedy Bunny (1965), in which Bykov also played the lead, portrays an idealistic man who struggles against bureaucracy. His most famous films as director are World War II dramas Only "Old Men" Are Going Into Battle (1974) and One-Two, Soldiers Were Going... (1977), in which he also starred.
^Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 126–127. ISBN978-0-8108-6072-8.
^ abНовая Российская энциклопедия: в 12 т. / Редкол.: А. Д. Некипелов, В. И. Данилов-Данильян и др. — М.: ООО «Издательство „Энциклопедия“» Т. 3 Бруней — Винча, 2007. — 480 с.: ил.