Boris Vildé as born 25 June 1908 in Petrograd (Saint Petersbourg). Following the premature death of his father in 1913, he emigrated with his mother and sister to Estonia. In 1930 he went to Letonia, and later to Germany. In Berlin in 1932, he met André Gide, who had come to give a talk. André Gide advised him to leave Germany. He arrived in Summer 1932 in Paris. While studying German and Japanese in Paris, Gide introduced him to Paul Rivet, Director of the Musée de l’Homme. In July 1934, Boris Vildé married Irène Lot, the daughter of historian Ferdinand Lot, and on 5 September 1936 he obtained his French nationality. He graduated from the Sorbonne with a degree in German in 1937 and was put in charge of the Arctic civilizations department at the Musée de l’Homme.

The resistance

Appointed to the Musée de l'Homme on 1 January 1939, he became head of the Polar Peoples department. He was about to embark on a third study trip to Sweden and Finland when war was declared. Mobilised into the French army, he was taken prisoner by the Germans on 17 June 1940 in the Jura. He escaped and returned to Paris in early July.

In August 1940, he founded one of the first Resistance movements in Paris, which called itself the ‘Comité National de Salut Public’ (National Committee for Public Safety) and later became known as the ‘Musée de l'Homme network’. Composed of Parisian intellectuals and colleagues from the Musée de l'Homme, this group was initially formed by Yvonne Oddon, the museum's librarian, Boris Vildé and Anatole Lewitsky, another Russian émigré employed at the museum, who was also an ethnologist and head of collections. But the group quickly expanded.

The first leaflets were published in August 1940 by the Musée de l'Homme Resistance group, and the first issue of the newspaper Résistance, with the front page written by Boris Vildé, was published under the direction of Jean Cassou on 15 December 1940. This four-page newspaper had a considerable impact on French people who refused to submit. Between December 1940 and March 1941, five issues were distributed. Pierre Brossolette wrote the last issue, published on 25 March 1941 (an issue that has never been found), just before the group was dismantled. Initially printed at the Musée de l'Homme, the newspaper was subsequently published in Aubervilliers.

THE DENUNCIATION

Boris Vildé met a certain Ameline (Albert Gaveau, an agent of SS Captain Doering), whom he made his right-hand man. On 26 March 1941, Boris Vildé was arrested by the Gestapo after being denounced by Albert Gaveau, who turned out to be a double agent, while other museum employees (notably Yvonne Oddon and Anatole Lewitsky) were arrested by the French police after being denounced by two employees of the Musée de l'Homme, Fedorovsky and Erouchkovsky. The trial, dubbed ‘the Musée de l'Homme Affair’ by the newspapers, began in January 1942 and resulted in seven death sentences. The death penalty was commuted to deportation for the women.

Boris Vildé was shot at Fort Mont-Valérien, along with six other fellow Resistance fighters, on 23 February 1942. He is buried in Ivry Cemetery alongside his comrades, including Anatole Lewitsky, who was shot on the same day.