This article analyzes fiction about the Great Patriotic War as a means of educating patriotic qualities in future officers. The features of the image in the literature of the events of the Great Patriotic War in different years of the Soviet period and in post-Soviet Russia are shown, the specifics of the use of fiction about the Great Patriotic War in the patriotic education of cadets of military universities in various historical periods are revealed. Approaches to depicting the events of the war years changed significantly, as did the methods of patriotic education of cadets. The changes that took place during the collapse of the USSR were especially tangible in this regard, however, to this day, the cultural heritage left by writers whose work touched on the theme of the Great Patriotic War is preserved and remains important in educational terms.