 In Russia she published many collections of poetry and short stories, and a number of one-act plays.She first used the pseudonym "Teffi" with the publication in 1907 of her one-act play "The Woman Question".She provided two separate explanations of the name; that it was suggested to her in relation to a friend whose servant called him "Steffi", or that it came from the English rhyme "Taffy was a Welshman/Taffy was a thief."