Among the authors who regularly contributed to Russkaya Beseda, were Sergei Aksakov, Vladimir Dal, Aleksey K. Tolstoy, Alexander Ostrovsky, Aleksey Khomyakov, Fyodor Tyutchev, Ivan Nikitin, Taras Shevchenko.
It was first published in #1, January 1857 issue of Russkaya Beseda and came out as a separate edition later that year.
The old school followers (the brothers Aksakov and Kireevsky, Khomyakov and others) grouped first around the publication Moskovsky sbornik, then Russkaya Beseda.