The article focuses on the main stages of development of adult education system in Ukraine. The focus is made on the analysis of the influence the traditions of the past have left in the modern system of adult education. The author underlines the importance of studying the historical processes taking place in its development. Having been the part of Russian empire and later the USSR, the country went through the common process of formation, faced the common challenges, and formed similar with the neighbors’ system of adult education. To adapt the lifelong learning system to the new, changed conditions, it is necessary to understand its basic stages and carefully implement world’s best experience into existing realities.