The research aims to determine the role and significance of historical events and facts in the poetics of a literary work. Undoubtedly, any work is based to one degree or another on the factual material of our lives. It may have private or public significance. Often, such factual or historical materials become a way for a writer to visually illustrate a certain (main or secondary) idea. The paper analyzes the works in which the historical development of the country becomes the plot of the narrative. In the literary studies of the 20th century, such works were traditionally defined as historical novels. The scientific novelty of the research is connected with the need to specify the genre structure of the historical novel and to determine the aesthetic significance of the use of historical material in modern novels. This problem is connected with the need to comprehend the artistic and historical reality and historical truth in the plot of a literary work. As a result, it has been proved that the historical reality recreated by the writer in a particular work is not a mirror image of the historical path of the country and the people; in a literary work, it becomes the author’s subjective reaction to certain historical events.