Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages 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 this volume we examine Russians authors of the 20th Century. Whether it is under the despotic boot of Czars or the authoritarian boot of Communism, the imagination and ideas of such authors as Leo Tolstoy, Leonid Andreyev, Maxin Gorky, Mikhail Bulgakov cut through with razor sharp prose that adds genius to each and every name.1 - The Top 10 Short Stories - The 20th Century - The Russians - An Introduction2 - Aloysha the Pot by Leo Tolstoy3 - Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov4 - Kasimir Stanislavovitch by Ivan Bunin5 - Her Lover by Maxim Gorky6 - Anathema by Alexander Kuprin7 - The Marseillaise by Leonid Andreyev8 - The Republic of the Southern Cross by Valery Bryusov9 - The Duel by Nikolai Teleshov10 - The Revolutionist by Mikhail Petrovich Artzybashev11 - My First Goose by Isaac Babel