Soviet Science Fiction
Asimov, Isaac, ed.
Soviet Science Fiction. New York: Crowell-Collier, 1962.
The introduction is by Asimov, and covers a theory of the evolution of American science fiction in three stages between 1926 and the book's publication. While confessing broad ignorance about the state of Soviet science fiction, Asimov proposes that the genre had not passed beyond the comparable American second stage (ca. 1938-50) in which the nature of the stories had passed from being adventure-dominant to technically-dominant. He doubted the third stage, the sociologically-dominant, would occur in the Soviet Union, since the nature of the Communist revolution and the patriotic demands of Soviet culture seemed to discourage speculation about alternate cultural forms.
The volume, which originally retailed for $0.95, contains six stories by five authors:
Belayev, Alexander. "Hoity-Toity".
Strugatsky, Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. "Spontaneous Reflex".
Kazantsev, Alexander. "A Visitor from Outer Space".
Kazantsev, Alexander. "The Martian".
Gurevich, Georgy. "Infra Draconis".
Savchenko, Vladimir. "Professor Bern's Awakening".
I started reading Savchenko's story earlier this evening. None of the stories so far have been particularly weak, although for reasons I cannot express, I would say Gurevich's "Infra Draconis" stands out as particularly enjoyable. Belayev's "Hoity-Toity" is perhaps the "best" according to a Western literary standard, but the whole question is up in the air.
The volume is out of print, and seemingly rare. So far, I've only found
one listing for it online.