Irina Dmitrievna Prokhorova (Russian: Ирина Дмитриевна Прохорова; born 3 March 1956) is a Russian philologist, literary critic and cultural historian, chief editor of the New Literary Observer [ru] publishing house and of the literature academic journal of the same name, co-founder of the Mikhail Prokhorov Charitable Foundation [ru].

Dmitri handled international relations for the Soviet Committee of Physical Culture and Sport, while Tamara was a materials engineer at the Institute for Chemical Machine-Building.

[5] As recalled by her daughter, late 1980s were hard for Irina because she was a single mother who worked a lot and had to single-handedly care for her elderly gravely ill parents.

The democratization of Russian society was in its prime then and the magazine was free to publish any materials without censorship, however, philology and humanitarian sciences were in decline due to acute economical crisis and no state support.

[18][19][20] In 2004 Irina and her brother co-founded the Mikhail Prokhorov Charitable Foundation [ru] aimed to support Russian cultural institutions.

[31] Prokhorova supports multiple civic initiatives, she publicly condemned the Dima Yakovlev Law,[32] and opposed the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

[33] Despite her anti-war stance, massive exodus of liberals from Russia and her own brother emigration to Israel, Prokhorova refuses to leave and abandon her publishing house.