Στα χρόνια του Μεγάλου Πατριωτικού Πολέμου (1941-1945) ο Φαντέγιεφ γράφει χρονογραφήματα και άρθρα για τον ηρωικό αγώνα του λαού.
Οι ηρωικές ρομαντικές νότες, που χαρακτηρίζουν το έργο του Φαντέγιεφ, ηχούν με ιδιαίτερη δύναμη στο μυθιστόρημα Νέα Φρουρά που έχει σα θέμα τις πατριωτικές πράξεις της παράνομης κομσομόλικης οργάνωσης «Νέα φρουρά» του Κρασνοντόν. Το μυθιστόρημα εξυμνεί τον αγώνα του σοβιετικού λαού κατά των Γερμανοφασιστών κατακτητών. Στις μορφές του Ολέγκ Κοσεβόι, του Σεργκέι Τιουλένιν, της Λιούμπκα Σεφτόβα και άλλων μελών της οργάνωσης ενσαρκώθηκε το αγνό σοσιαλιστικό ιδανικό. Ο συγγραφέας απεικονίζει τους ήρωες σε ρομαντικό πνεύμα. Στο βιβλίο συνενώνονται αγωνιστικό πάθος και λυρισμός παράλληλα με τη βαθιά ψυχολογική διείσδυση.
Αναπτύσσοντας τις καλύτερες παραδόσεις της ρωσικής λογοτεχνίας (Λ. Τολστόι, Μ. Γκόρκι) ο Φαντέγιεφ δημιούργησε έργα που έγιναν κλασικά υποδείγματα της λογοτεχνίας του σοσιαλιστικού ρεαλισμού.
Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev (Russian: Александр Алексaндрович Фадеев) was a Soviet writer, one of the co-founders of the Union of Soviet Writers and its chairman from 1946 to 1954.
From 1908 to 1912 he lived in Chuguyevka, Primorsky Krai. He took part in the guerrilla movement against the Japanese interventionists and the White Army during the Russian Civil War. In 1927, he published the novel The Rout (also known as The Nineteen), in which he described youthful guerrilla fighters.
In 1945 he wrote the novel Young Guard (based upon real events of World War II) about the underground anti-fascist Komsomol organization named Young Guard, which fought against the Nazis in the occupied city Krasnodon (in the Ukrainian SSR). For this novel, Fadeyev was awarded the Stalin Prize (1946). In 1948, a Soviet film The Young Guard, based on the book, was released, and later revised in 1964 to correct inaccuracies in the book.
Fadeyev was a champion of Joseph Stalin, proclaiming him "the greatest humanist the world has ever known". During the 1940s, he actively promoted Zhdanovshchina, a campaign of criticism and persecution against many of the Soviet Union's foremost composers. However, he was a friend of Mikhail Sholokhov. Fadeyev married a famous stage actress, Angelina Stepanova (1905–2000).
In the last years of his life Fadeyev became an alcoholic. Some sources claim, that this was mostly due to the denunciation of Stalinism during the Khrushchev Thaw. He eventually committed suicide at his dacha in Peredelkino, leaving a dying letter, from which one can see Fadeyev's strictly negative attitude to new leaders of the Party. His death occasioned an epigram by Boris Pasternak, his neighbor.
Alexander Fadeyev is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Great epopy of Soviet teenagers' resistence against the Nazi invadors. A classic. Sometimes I felt there was too much description, too many characters given equal importance as the young heroes, too little action, but the final 80 pages made up for it as I read in tears of the Young Guars's capture and tortures by the SS. I recommend to all who are not intimidated by a long, slow-moving book.