Between 1941 and 1944 Anton Golopentia carries out an ethnographic research on the scattered Romanian villages of the Ukrainian steppes between the Dniestre and the Bug rivers as part of the programme IREB (Identificarea Românilor de la Est de Bug).
On 16 January 1950 Anton Golopentia is arrested and following a sham trial typical of the worst excesses of witch-hunt ever known under the dictatorship: he expiates under appalling conditions of torture and neglect, 18 months after his arrest in the Vacaresti political prison.
For over forty years of Communist censorship and a further decade of pre-programmed amnesia in post-Communism, the works of Anton Golopentia could not come to print. However the results of his investigations could only be published under the care of his daughter Sanda Golopentia, Professor at Brown University in the United States. under the title „Românii de la Est de Bug” (Romanian Settlements East of River Bug).
