In October 1942, he volunteered for the Soviet Army and as a flak and artillery battery commander fought at the Kalinin, then Stalingrad Fronts.

Later he became the 247th Zenith and Artillery regiment's Chief of Stuff's deputy and demobilized in the rank of a Guard captain, a chevalier of several high-profile military awards, including two Orders of the Red Star.

In 1972, for his poem Alone Forever (1970) as well as The Plough and the Furrow (1972) collection he was awarded the RSFSR Maxim Gorky State Prize.

[1] In 1959-1989 Vikulov edited Nash Sovremennik, an influential conservative (neo-Slavophiliac) magazine set to propagate the traditional Russian values, as opposed to the Western-style liberal ideas.

Among his best friends and allies were the authors who contributed to the magazine regularly: Viktor Astafyev, Valentin Rasputin, Fyodor Abramov, Vasily Belov, Yuri Bondarev, Vladimir Soloukhin.