Chaplenko, Vasyl

Chaplenko, Vasyl [Чапленко, Василь; Čaplenko], b 18 March 1900 in Mykolaivka, Kyiv gubernia, d 4 February 1990 in New York. A graduate of the Dnipropetrovsk Institute of People's Education, linguist, writer, and literary critic. After teaching at several institutions of higher learning in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Chaplenko emigrated in 1945 to Western Europe and later to the United States of America. He is the author of the novels Pyvoriz (The Itinerant Tutor, 1943), Chornomortsi (Black Sea Cossacks, 1948), Liudy v tenetakh (Ensnared People, 1951), Zahybil' Peremitka (The Fall of Peremitko, 1961), Ioho taiemnytsia (His Secret, 1975), and several collections of short stories. As a linguist Chaplenko’s main contribution is in the area of the history of the Standard Ukrainian language, summarized in his books Ukraïns'ka literaturna mova (XVII st.–1917 r.) (The Ukrainian Literary Language [17th Century to 1917], 1955) and Istoriia novoï ukraïns'koï literaturnoï movy (XVII st.–1933 r.) (History of the Modern Ukrainian Literary Language [17th Century to 1933], 1970). Chaplenko also wrote on the Ukrainian elements in Nikolai Gogol and the ethnogenesis of the Slavs. Collection of literary critism: Deshcho pro krasne pys'menstvo i mystetstvo vzahali (About Belles-lettres and Art in General, 1980); Movna polityka bil'shovykiv na Ukraïni v 1950–60 rokakh (The Language Politics of the Bolsheviks in Ukraine in the 1950s–1960s, 1974), and Mii holos u pusteli: Beletrystyha i polemika (My Voice in the Wilderness: Belles-lettres and Polemical Writings, 1979).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]