Ilya Fondaminsky was a Russian writer, political activist, and religious scholar who lived from 1880 to 1942. Originally a leader within the Socialist Revolutionary Party, he served as a senior official in the Provisional Government during 1917. After moving to Paris in 1919, he transitioned from leftist politics to becoming an influential editor and philanthropist. He is remembered for his support of Christian charities and his eventual conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy before his death in the Auschwitz concentration camp.