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Abstract: The article provides a comparative analysis of A. Platonov’s wartime stories (1941–1945) and Leo Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol Stories,” “War and Peace” and “Hadji Murat.” Both Platonov’s Red Army fighters and Tolstoy’s soldiers identify themselves not with an abstract “fatherland” but with their local “small motherland.” Both in Tolstoy and Platonov’s works, neither skillful strategy nor overpowering armaments become the war’s decisive factor but every single soldier’s courage. The battle often develops as an intersection of planned and unforeseen happenings, and everyone bears his own responsibility for it. Platonov’s concept of “truth,” like Tolstoy’s “providence,” is linked to the attacked side and serves as a moral justification for resistance to the aggressor. Platonov, however, like Tolstoy (who speaks as a consistent pacifist in his later works), sees the danger of moral degradation as the result of war, and degradation signs had been notable before the war. Sacrifices (including, in this context, Platonov’s son) are not in vain only if there is a better life after the war.