Years active 1890s-1942 Name Ilya Fondaminsky | Role Author | |
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Full Name Il'ya Isidorovich Fondaminskii Occupation writer, political activist, editor, philanthropist Died November 19, 1942, Oswiecim, Poland | ||
Ilya Isidorovich Fondaminsky (Илья′ Исидо′рович Фондами′нский, February 17, 1880, Moscow, Russia — November 19, 1942, Auschwitz, (Oświęcim, Nazi-occupied Lesser Poland) was a Jewish Russian author (writing under the pseudonym Bunakov) and political activist, in 1910s one of the leaders of the ultra left Esers party, in 1917 a senior member of the Alexander Kerensky's Provisional government.
In 1918 Fondaminsky took part in the Jassy Conference. In France where he was living since immigration in 1919, Fondaminsky veered off from the left and became an influential newspaper editor (Sovremennye Zapisky, among others), author of philosophical essays and in the later years — much admired philanthropist, supporting Christian magazines and charity funds. Facing the Nazi occupation, Fondaminsky refused to leave Paris, saying he was willing to accept his destiny whatever it may be. Arrested in July 1941 and sent to the concentration camp, he adopted Christianity and was christened a Russian Orthodox not long before being sent to Auschwitz. Ilya Fondaminsky died there on November 19, 1942. In 2003 he was officially pronounced a Russian Orthodox saintly martyr by the Patriarch of Constantinople.