Vasyl Chaplenko was a prominent Ukrainian author, publicist and linguist. Born March 18, 1900 in Ukraine, he became persona non grate, persecuted by Soviet authorities, forced to flee Ukraine and work beyond its borders, in Turkmenistan, Caucasus. During the World War II, he emigrated, first to Germany, then to US. He was one of the Founders of the Ukrainian Academy - first in Germany, then in USA. In New York, he was the founder and the first Chairman of the "Vynnychenko Commission" at the Ukrainian Academy, which strove to preserve the heritage of Volodymyr Vynnychenko; part of Vynnychenko's works, preserved in Academy's archives, was returned to Ukraine, in a ceremony held last week at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, DC.