After his military service, from 1942 to 1945 in the Kremlin guard, he began his serious literary career, and in 1951 graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.

From 1958 to 1981, he worked in the editorial offices of the prominent newspaper Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard) and in the literary journal Nash Sovremennik (Our Contemporary).

At that time, a thesis was popular (and, indeed, was furthered by the authorities), claiming that the crimes of the Stalinist era were a result of "violating Leninist principles", whereas Soloukhin interpreted Stalinism as the logical consequence of Lenin's policies.

His works strives to demonstrate the necessity of preserving the national traditions, and ponders the ways to further develop ethnic Russian art.

In 1975, the journal Moskva published his autobiographical story “Verdict” («Приговор»), where the protagonist is diagnosed with cancer and undergoes surgical operation; in essence the author is describing thoughts of a person who has received death sentence.