The article deals with fictional-documentary nature of Pikul’s war prose: ‘Requiem for Convoy PQ-17’, ‘Boys with bows’, ‘Operation Barbarossa’. What is relevant in the novels under discussion is stylistic differentiation. The author intends to re-create the true events, drawing from facts and historical documents. At the same time V. Pikul demonstrates utmost sincerity, lyricism, capacity for selfreinvention and a unique poetic context typical of the epoch’s atmosphere. His message in the unfinished ‘Operation Barbarossa’ foreboded the development of the war prose in Russian literature, as well as the pattern of social and political controversies of 1990–2000s.