Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

In the vast Empire of the Russians literature was a way to exchange ideas, values and cultures. Yet each author, each story, each character is an individual example of a journey that, story by story, has transformed the glimmering arc of its literature.

1 - The Top 10 - The 19th Century - The Russians - An Introduction

2 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy

3 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol also known as 'The Overcoat'

4 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 1 by Fyodor Dostoevsky

5 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 2 by Fyodor Dostoevsky

6 - Twenty-Six Men and a Girl by Maxim Gorky

7 - The Bet by Anton Chekhov

8 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev

9 - The Shot by Alexander Pushkin

10 - Hide And Seek or Pliatki by Fyodor Sologub

11 - Taman by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov

12 - The Signal by Vsevolod Garshin