Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky did not shy away from expressing his grief after the loss of his first child, Sonia. He mourned her passing after she died from pneumonia in May 1868 at barely three months old, writing gut-wrenching letters to his close friend Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov that same month.

Dostoevsky was married twice. His first wife, Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, died on April 15, 1864. They did not have children together. On February 15, 1867, he married his second wife, stenographer Anna Grigorievna Snitkina. They had four children: Sofia (Sonia), Lyubov, Fyodor, and Aleksei (who also died young, at nearly three years old).

Dostoevsky’s personal letters to Maikov give a raw account of his heartache over Sonia that still resonates and offers comfort to those going through grief.

Dostoevsky’s letter to his friend

Here is the letter Dostoevsky wrote to Maikov:

“My Sonia is dead; we buried her three days ago. Two hours before her death, I did not know that she was to die. The........

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