Boris Robertovich Vipper was born in Moscow, in the Russian Empire, the only son of historian Robert Vipper, who was of Austrian origin (his ancestors arrived in Russia in the 1820s from Bregenz), and his wife Anastasiia Vasilievna Akhramovich, an ethnic Belarusian.
[3] At this time, with his father's views on history coming under criticism from the new Soviet authorities, the Vippers moved to newly-independent Latvia to continue their academic career.
[1] During this period, in addition to his teaching activity, Vipper defended his doctoral dissertation in 1927 at the Kaunas University.
During World War II he also taught briefly at the Central Asian State University in Tashkent (1942-1943).
[4] In 1944 he returned to the capital to teach at the Moscow State University, where he taught general art history until 1955, as well as work at the Pushkin Museum and as a senior researcher at the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, holding both positions until his death.