The paper considers interrelation between the regularities in the fatigue fracture and inelastic deformation taking into account the material properties, stress gradient and concentration, specimen size, load cycle asymmetry, complex stress state, temperature, loading frequency and conditions, scatter of the test results. Analysis of the data from the literature and results of original investigations has shown that the characteristics of inelasticity, which define nonlocalized fatigue damage, can be used in studies of general regularities of the high-cycle fatigue fracture. Specific results of such analysis are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]