Best Russian Short Stories Author:Various Authors ?Best Russian Short Stories? was initially published in 1917 and edited by Thomas Seltzer. The introduction praises the Russian sensibility for its ?simplicity, naturalness, veraciousness.? A collection of short fiction by Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Turgenev, Chekhov, Gorky, and many others, each selection is the work of a master.