Volodymyr Doroshenko was a bibliographer, literary scholar, and civic and political leader, particularly within the Ukrainian community. He was born in St. Petersburg and grew up in the Poltava region. Facing persecution by the police, Doroshenko relocated to Lviv in 1908, where he resided until 1944. He emigrated to Germany before eventually settling in the United States in 1949.

Doroshenko's significant scholarly works include bibliographies of Ivan Franko, Taras Shevchenko, Olha Kobylianska, and Panteleimon Kulish. Additionally, he translated works by Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Apart from his scholarly endeavors, Doroshenko engaged in literary activities, including polemics with fellow writers like Serhiy Yefremov. He also authored memoirs and articles covering various topics, which were published in prominent Ukrainian periodicals such as "Ukrainskaia zhizn'," "Kievskaia starina," "Literaturno-naukovyi visnyk," "Rada," "Dilo," "Svoboda," and "America."