The dissertation is devoted to the study of the patterns of positioning of Stepan Bandera in the socio-cultural space of Ukraine, which includes different levels of socially significant activity of people - scientific, educational, socio-political, cultural, media. The research provided an opportunity to trace the evolution of the scientific representation of the leader of the OUN(b), to reveal the extent to which S. Bandera's activities are reflected in school textbook literature, to analyze the socio-political refraction of his figure, to study the symbolic space around him, to track the accumulation of characteristics of the figure in the media space and manifestations of information confrontation, to determine the dynamics of its perception by Ukrainian society. The analysis of the historiography of the problem showed the presence of certain achievements of scientists in the study of the representation of the name of S. Bandera in the socio-cultural space. It was noted that some of its aspects were put on the agenda by researchers at the turn of the 1990s - 2000s. The catalyst for scientific interest in the topic was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Leader of the OUN(b), under the influence of which special publications of authorship appeared V. Vyatrovych, V. Trofymovich, V. Futala and other historians. The next wave of actualization of the historiographic dimension of the positioning of the figure of S. Bandera was caused by the beginning of Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine in 2014. As a result, in the second half of the 2010s, a number of intermediate studies appeared on the level of development, stages and content of the works, to one degree or another focused on the figure of the leader of the OUN(b). However, throughout the entire historiographical period, from the 1990s to the beginning of the 2020s, works on representations of the figure of S. Bandera, if analyzed, were mostly in the general context of the achievements of the study of the Ukrainian national liberation movement of the 20th century, primarily the history of the OUN. Few scientists paid special attention to the results of studying his attitude in the socio-cultural space, which prompted a special study. The dissertation is based on a complex of historical sources, which, according to the origin and method of information preservation, are grouped into four groups: written, tangible (monuments and museum exhibits), linguistic (street names and slogans), electronic (official websites of institutions, Internet portals, electronic media, reference web resources, social networks, blogs). The widest is the first group, which is represented in the dissertation by historiographical sources, legislative acts, works of S. Bandera, memoir literature, educational and methodical works on teaching history at school, periodicals, materials of sociological research. The methodological foundations of the study include the principles of scientific knowledge (scientific objectivity, historicism, multifactoriality, continuity) and a set of general scientific methods (empirical, analytical-synthetic, inductive-deductive, problem-chronological, statistical, logical, dialectical, generalization), which gave it will be possible to build a general configuration of research, as well as special historical ones (historical-comparative, historical-typological, historical-genetic, historical-biographical), which is used in the study of changes over time in certain objects. Since historical science is currently one of the agents of the information confrontation and is an important element of the socio-cultural space, the dissertation pays attention to determining the place of the figure of S. Bandera in the process of studying Ukrainian history. In the formation of scientific ideas about it, two stages are distinguished: the Soviet period (50-80s of the 20th century) and the era of Ukrainian Independence (90s of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century). It is shown that two diametrically opposed concepts of Ukrainian history were formed on the first one, and in its context - the history of the liberation movement, within which the figure of S. Bandera was positioned. In the Soviet concept, Ukrainian nationalism was interpreted as "the greatest enemy of the Ukrainian people." It is characterized by ideological obscurantism, distortion and suppression of facts, falsification of events, frankly brutal attitude towards leading figures of the OUN. As for the figure of S. Bandera, the general concept of "Bander people" was used on the pages of scientific works, while his personality almost completely "fell out" from the field of view of professional historians. At the same time, intellectuals from the Ukrainian diaspora, despite the idealization or categorical rejection of the figure due to a certain political engagement, with their publications revealed the most important milestones of the active life of the Leader of the OUN(b)...
