Ilya Yefimovich Repin was a Ukrainian-born Russian painter. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia in the 19th century. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1880–1883), Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885); and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–1891). He is also known for the revealing portraits he made of the leading literary and artistic figures of his time, including Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pavel Tretyakov, Pantaleon Szyndler, and especially Leo Tolstoy, with whom he had a long friendship.

Ilya Rahmielevich Reznik is a Russian poet and songwriter, People's Artist of Russia (2003). Honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts. People's Artist of Ukraine (2013).

Ilya Alexandrovich Salov (Илья Александрович Салов, 6 April 1834, Penza, Russian Empire, — 24 December 1902, Saratov, Russian Empire, was a Russian writer, playwright and translator.

Ilya Lvovich Selvinsky was a Soviet Jewish poet, dramatist, memoirist, and essayist born in Simferopol, Crimea.

Ilya Sholeimovich Shifman (Russian: Илья́ Шо́леймович Ши́фман was a Soviet historian, Orientalist and Classics scholar. He was awarded the degree Doctor of Historical Sciences in 1973; he worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leningrad department.

Ilya Petrovich Shtemler was a Soviet and Russian writer.

Colonel Ilya Grigoryevich Starinov was a Soviet military officer, the most famous Soviet saboteur.

Count Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy was a Russian writer, and the third child and second son of Leo Tolstoy.

Ilya Borisovich Zbarsky was a Soviet and Russian biochemist who served as the head of Lenin's Mausoleum from 1956 to 1989. He was appointed as Advisor at the Direction of the Institute in 1989 due to his age. He was the son of Boris Zbarsky, who helped mummify Lenin's body in 1924. Zbarsky was a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

Ilya Zhakanov — a Soviet and Kazakhstani writer, composer, art critic, Honored Worker of Culture of the Kazakh SSR (1990), Distinguished Cultural Contributor of Kyrgyzstan (1994), Distinguished Cultural Contributor of Kazakhstan (1998), Hero of Labour of Kazakhstan (2022).