Ilya Fondaminsky - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Ilya Fondaminsky 

Aliases Bunakov
Date of Birth March 1, 1880
Place of Birth Moscow
Date of death November 19, 1942 (62 years old)
Place of death Auschwitz
Citizenship Russia, France
Occupation revolutionary, freemason, religious figure
Language of Works Russian
Ilya Isidorovich Fondaminsky ( Fundaminsky, pseudonym Bunakov; February 17 (March 1) 1880, Moscow - November 19, 1942, Auschwitz) - Russian revolutionary, freemason, religious figure. In 1907-1917 and since 1919 he lived in exile. In 1941 he converted to Orthodoxy, died in Auschwitz. In 2004, canonized by the Orthodox Church of Constantinople

Biography
Born into a Jewish merchant family - his father, Israel-Ilya Itskovich Fundaminsky (1843—?), A native of Shklov, a jeweler, was in 1893 ranked among the merchants of the first guild. The brother of the revolutionary volunteer Matvey (Mordukh) Isidorovich Fundaminsky (1866-1896).

He studied at the Craiman private gymnasium in Moscow, then, from 1900 to 1904, at the philosophical faculties of the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg. Together with VM Zenzinov, ND Avksentiev and others, he was a member of the circle of young socialist revolutionaries. March 10, 1902 was arrested on the Russian-German border and imprisoned for two months in prison for transporting revolutionary literature. He joined the party of socialist revolutionaries.

In 1903 he married Amalia Osipovna Gavronskaya (1882-1935), the granddaughter of the “tea king” Wulf Yankelevich Vysotsky, sister of the director AO Gavronsky, philosopher DO Gavronsky and the Socialist-Revolutionary biochemist YO Gavronsky.

The 1905 revolution
In December 1904, Fondaminsky returned to Moscow and became one of the leaders of the Moscow City Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and was engaged in propaganda issues. In 1905, co-opted to the Central Committee of the AKP. In September 1905, together with his wife, he was arrested and imprisoned in Taganskaya Prison; released in October of that year. Participated in the organization of the December uprising in Moscow.

After the suppression of the uprising, he left for Finland, where in January 1906 he took part in the 1st Congress of the Socialist Revolutionary Party held in Helsingfors. In May - June 1906, one of the most critical critics of the State Duma of the first convocation at numerous rallies in St. Petersburg [1].

Participated in the organization of the uprising on the cruiser "Memory of Azov". July 20 arrived on a cruiser in a boat with two other agitators. However, by that time the uprising had already been crushed, and Fondaminsky was arrested by sailors who remained faithful to the oath. Upon arrest, he called himself Arseniy Aleksandrovich Belsky.

On July 31, 1906, at the naval court of the special commission on the uprising case, he asked the boatmen to be called as witnesses. Since it was shown that Fondaminsky arrived on the ship after the suppression of the uprising, the naval court dismissed the charge of violating the established form of government and handed over the inquiry to the prosecutor of the Revel district court [2].

Subsequently, this case was requested on October 7, 1906 from the prosecutor of the Revelsky district court by the Estonian Governor General and transferred to the military presence of the St. Petersburg Military District Court. However, the second military court also acquitted him. Fearing a new trial, Fondaminsky and his wife emigrated to France.

In exile
In 1907-1917 he lived in Paris. In May 1909 he participated in the 5th congress of the party of socialists-revolutionaries, where he was elected to one of the leading bodies of the party - the Overseas delegation.

In 1912, together with ND Avksentiev, he published the Pochin magazine.

Since the beginning of World War I, Fondaminsky has been in a defensive position, together with G. Plekhanov edited the journal “Call”, which opposed the defeatists.

The Revolution of 1917
In February 1917, together with ND Avksentiev and BV Savinkov, he returned to Petrograd. In May 1917, he was elected a fellow chairman of the Executive Committee of the Council of Peasant Deputies. In June, at the Third Congress, the AKP was elected to the Central Committee. In the summer of 1917, Fondaminsky was appointed the Commissioner of the Black Sea Fleet by the Provisional Government. He was elected to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly from the Black Sea Fleet.

In 1918 - a member of the Russian Revival Union. He was the editor of the publication of the union - "Renaissance" ("Son of the Fatherland"). Participated in the Iasi meeting.

Second emigration
Since the summer of 1918 he lived in Odessa, in April 1919 he emigrated to France with his wife, settled in Paris.

In 1919-1920 he became a member of the Parisian Masonic lodge "Brotherhood" (WWF), having passed initiation on the recommendation of Kandaurov and Mecca [3]. He was also a member of the box "Good Samaritan" in 1920-1921 [4].

He was one of the editors of the leading journal of emigration, "Modern Notes" (1920-1940). Thanks to the Fondamin journal, it was open to authors of various areas of socio-political thought and various literary movements. So, the journal published the works of L. Shestov, S. Frank, G. Florovsky, D. Merezhkovsky; works of art by I. Bunin, V. Nabokov, A. Remizov, M. Aldanov. In 1937, he was co-editor of Russian Notes.

In 1931-1939, together with GP Fedotov and FA Stepun, he published the Christian-Democratic journal "New City".

He actively participated in the activities of emigrant political and public organizations. Member of the Russian Student Christian Movement (RSHD) and the association "Orthodox cause".

In 1935, the wife of Fondaminsky died. After her death, he published a book in which the memories of her friends were collected [5].

In June 1940 he left Paris from the advancing German troops in the unoccupied zone, spent the summer in the area of ​​the city of Pau. Teffi writes in his memoirs that Fondaminsky had the opportunity to leave for the USA, where many of his friends and like-minded people had already moved. However, he never left France and soon returned to Paris. According to Teffi, he did not leave, because he would be ashamed of those who remained (including his best friend, Mother Mary), “because he had saved himself” [5].

June 22, 1941 was arrested by the German occupation authorities in a group of 120 Russian Masons [6]. He was kept in the camp of Royale in Compiegne, where on September 20, 1941 he was baptized into Orthodoxy. While most of the arrested Russians by nationality were released, Fondaminsky as a Jew was left in the camp. In 1942 he was sent to a camp in Drancy, and then to Auschwitz, where he died.

Canonization
In 2004, the “layman Ilya Fondaminsky” was canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople as a holy martyr; along with him the nun Maria (Skobtsova) was canonized [7]. Memorial Day in the Orthodox Church - July 20.

"Ilya Fondaminsky was a righteous man ... It is hard to think that among us, in our bad and evil life, there lived a man who can be called by that name. He lived our life as an average Russian intellectual, didn ' t preach, didn't teach, didn't act foolishly and was righteous.
Teffi (1951) [5] "