What was the name of Dostoevsky’s first child, who died in infancy?

Dostoevsky’s first child was Sofia Dostoyevskaya, who died in infancy.

Sofia was born in 1868 to Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anna Snitkina, less than a year after their marriage. She died when she was only a few months old. Her brief life was followed by the births of other children, including Lyubov and Fyodor, who survived into adulthood; a son named Alexei later died at age three.

The loss of Sofia was one of several family tragedies that affected the Dostoevskys. Biographical accounts often list the children in different contexts, so Sofia can be confused with Alexei, whose death occurred later and was connected with the family’s experience of epilepsy.

Anna’s memoirs and family records preserve details of the children’s lives. The surname also appears as Dostoyevskaya in transliteration, reflecting Russian grammatical gender and differing English transliteration systems.