Object – activity of public organizations in Ukraine in the period of the second half of the XX – beginning of the XXI century; the aim is to reveal theoretical issues and generalize the experience of public-educational activity of the «Knowledge» Society in Ukraine in the period of the second half of the XX-beginning of the XXI century, for the creative use of progressive achievements in modern conditions; methods – general scientific, special (historical-genesis, historical-diachronic, chronological, criterion-complex, historical-comparative, logical-historical, typological, retrospective, personalistic-biographical, prognostic and interpretive analysis); novelty – for the first time the public-educational activity of the «Knowledge» Society in Ukraine in the period of the second half of the XX – the beginning of the XXI century was studied in its entirety within a wide chronological framework. taking into account socio-economic, ideological and pedagogical factors; the stages of development of public educational activity of the «Knowledge» Society in Ukraine are substantiated: Stage I (1947–1962) was the stage of initiating the activities of the Ukrainian Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge as a social institution in the conditions of the Soviet political system, Stage II (1963–1989) – the stage of expanding directions, initiating new forms and deepening the content of public and educational activities of the «Knowledge» Society of the USSR in the context of implementing the basic provisions of the policy of advanced socialism, Stage III (1990–2018) – the stage of reorganization of the content, directions, forms of public and educational activities of the «Knowledge» Society of Ukraine; the experience of public-educational activity of the «Knowledge» Society in Ukraine in the researched period in the following directions is generalized: realization of lecture activity and adjustment of work of establishments of propagandistic direction; forms and methods of organizing pedagogical comprehensive education of parents; preparation and printing of popular science and literary and artistic publications; the prognostic tendencies of development of public-educational activity of the «Knowledge» Society in Ukraine in the following directions are outlined: scientific-educational, social, health-preserving, educational-pedagogical, social-political; further development of ideas about the socio-political and socio-cultural preconditions for the emergence of the public-educational «Knowledge» Society of Ukraine, the professional potential of its leaders (professional competence, organizational skills, managerial qualities); results – research materials formed the basis for the development of the curriculum of the discipline of free choice «Fundamentals of Andragogy»; data and conclusions can be used in compiling textbooks, manuals, encyclopedic and reference bibliographic publications, developing disciplines of free choice for higher education students of different levels, preparation of master's theses and research projects, as well as teaching such disciplines as «History of Ukraine», «Theory and history of social communications (scientific specialization)», «Pedagogy» (module «History of pedagogy»); the materials of the research can be used by current public educational organizations of Ukraine in the process of developing statutory documentation, planning directions, selection of content, forms of work with different age groups, non-formal education institutions in the process of designing and implementing educational strategies.
