Cyclic life under loading-unloading cycles of a precipitation hardening austenitic steel Fe - 0.40 ? - 18 Mn - 2 Si - 2 V steel (mass percent) specimens was studied experimentally and simulated by means of a microstructural model. This steel with the shape memory possessing rather high strength around 1000 MPa demonstrates also rather good fatigue properties withstanding 20000 cycles at the maximum stress of the loading-unloading cycle 800 MPa. The microstructural model of the deformation of FeMnSi-based SMA, which takes into account the specific features of the martensitic transformation and the micro plastic deformation, and supplemented with a deformation-and-stress criterion of fracture proved to be an adequate tool for describing the fatigue fracture of steels undergoing fcc-hcp martensitic transformation. A good agreement between the calculation and the experimental data was obtained. Thus, this model can be expected to be suitable for estimations of the cyclic life of SMA working elements under various thermal and mechanical loadings.