Born in St. Petersburg into an Orthodox family, he spent his childhood in the village of Yastrebino near Petrograd.

In 1919, the Vilde family emigrated to Estonia and settled in Tartu, known as a university city. In 1920 and 1926, Vilde studied at the Tartu Russian Gymnasium, and in 1926 and 1927, at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Tartu University. In 1929, he became a member of the Yuriev Guild of Poets in Tartu.

In 1930, Vilde moved to Germany, where he worked as a librarian, translator, and tutor, and also gave lectures on Russian culture under the name Ivan Yastrebinsky. At one of his lectures, he met Andre Gide, who advised him to move to Paris. In 1932, Vilde followed this advice, graduated from the Sorbonne and the School of Eastern Languages, took French citizenship, and from 1937 worked at the Museum of Man. In the same year, on behalf of the museum, he collected ethnographic materials about the Setu people and local Russians in Estonia.

In July 1934, Vilde married Irene Lot, daughter of French historian Ferdinand Lot and employee of the Russian magazine 'Put' Myrra Lot-Borodina.

He wrote poetry in Russian and French, published novellas, short stories, and literary-critical essays, including under the pseudonym Boris Dikoy. His works appeared in the collection 'Nov' and various magazines and newspapers such as 'Brussels Herald', 'Meetings', 'Russian Store', 'Field Flowers', and 'Rul'. Since 1932, he was a member of the Union of Young Russian Poets and Writers in France.

In 1939, Vilde was mobilized into the French army and was captured by the Germans in the Ardennes. In early July 1940, he escaped from captivity, returned to Paris, and joined the anti-fascist underground. In July 1940, he organized one of the first groups of the French Resistance and began to illegally publish the newspaper 'Resistance', the name of which became a symbol of the French people's struggle against fascism.

In March 1941, Vilde was arrested by the Nazis and executed on February 23, 1942, at Fort Mont-Valérien along with other Resistance members. He was buried in the cemetery in Ivry-sur-Seine next to Anatoly Levitsky and other comrades.

On May 7, 1985, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class.