Semyonov achieved a wide renown in the USSR with his novel series, “Political Chronicles” by the common name, united by the principal character, Soviet scout Isaev – Stierlitz.
Later, in so called “Militia Series” novels (“Petrovka, 38”, “Ogareva, 6”), Semyonov introduced the “police procedural” construction in Soviet literature.
The story “Diplomatic Agent”, the first noticeable work published, was written in 1958 after the trip to Kabul, where Semyonov was assigned a job as a Pashto and Dari interpreter in 1955.
Semyonov's first fiction works were by no means adventure novels – they were full of romanticism and focussed on ordinary toilers: “Five Stories from Geologist N. N. Ryabinina’s Life” (1958), a short-story cycle about geologists; “Weekdays and Holidays” (1959), a short-story cycle about builders of the taiga mainline; “People Storm the Sky” (1960), collected stories about builders of the East-Siberian mainline; “… On the Official Duty” (1962), a story about polar pilots (which became one of the most noticeable anti-Stalin works published by the “Yunost” magazine at the beginning of the 1960s); “The Rain in the Rainwater Pipes”; “My Heart is in the Mountains”; “Farewell to the Beloved Woman”, and many others.
In 1962 there was published the autobiographical short stories cycle “37-56” (“In the Summer of the Thirty-Seventh”, “The Autumn of the Fifty-Second”, “That Night in Yaroslavl”, “Soldier’s Fate in America”, “The First Day of Freedom”) on the “anti-Stalin” topic.
He is Semyonov's prevailing autobiographical character acting in several works of both “Militia” and “KGB” series (“Tass Is Authorized to Announce”, “International Knot”, “Ogareva, 6”, “Reporter”) and in numerous lyrical short stories (“The Rain in the Rainwater Pipes”, ‘It is not yet autumn”, “Leader” etc.)
“Burning”, a four-volume chronicle novel (1977 — 1987) (filmed in the duology: “Without Distinguishing Features” and “Failure of the ‘Terror’ Operation”, 1978—1980)about Felix Dzerzhinsky life.