Ilya Fondaminsky
Ilya Isidorovich Fondaminsky, was a Russian author and political activist, in 1910s one of the leaders of the 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, 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 as a Jew and sent to the concentration camp, he adopted Christianity and was received into the Russian Orthodox Church 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.
