New book follows Boris Vilde from Tartu bohemian to French hero

A new collection of Boris Vilde’s prison diary and letters sheds light on the Estonian-born writer whose life and work have drawn sustained interest in France. Aivar Kull reviews the book for ERR.

Prison diary and letters, 1941–1942 was compiled and annotated by Marek Tamm, who also wrote the afterword. Triinu Tamm translated it from French. The 184-page volume was published in 2026 as part of Loomingu Raamatukogu.

Vilde (1908–1942) led a short, eventful life that, Kull writes, could inspire both an adventure novel and a film. He has been written about in several languages and attracted the interest of people from many fields. In 2022, writer Indrek Hirv said that Vilde’s name was taught in French schools and was probably the best-known Estonian name in France.

In Estonia, writer Valmar Adams helped introduce Vilde to readers. In 1964, he published extracts from Vilde’s diary in the literary journal Looming under the title “Dialogue in Prison”, accompanied by an essay called “The Shooting Star of a Tartu Boy”. Kull recalls being struck by the fact that Vilde was still learning languages shortly before he was sentenced to death, aged 33.

Vilde’s life also inspired a radio series by Valdo Pant, Mati Kuulberg’s ballet Mont Valérien, staged at Vanemuine theatre in 1972, and Rein Saluri’s play Who Am I?, staged at the Youth Theatre in 1977. Lennart Meri said in 2004 that he had wanted to write about Vilde but knew he would not complete the project. Film-maker Arvo Kruusement also planned a feature film about him.

Contemporaries remembered Vilde as charming, carefree and romantic, a free spirit who disregarded material concerns and social conventions. Tamara Miljutina, who knew him in Paris, recalled him as a bold and unusual man, with a clear mind and a willingness to take risks.

Kull says the new volume dispels any suggestion that Vilde had communist sympathies, a notion that had been used to construct a Soviet propaganda image of him. His diary refers to thinkers and writers including Nietzsche, Pascal, Nikolai Berdyaev, Lev Shestov, Rilke and Baudelaire.

The diary combines candid self-examination with philosophical reflection, and its occasional use of dialogue adds dramatic tension. In a letter to his wife, Irène, dated January 5, 1942, Vilde wrote of discoveries he had made about himself, saying they had been buried beneath “small ambitions, vague dreams and the transient desires of everyday life”. Kull describes the diary as a unique historical document.