In the United States, the United Kingdom, and most European Union countries, rhetoric as an academic discipline has its own peer-reviewed journals with decades of tradition. In Ukraine, no such publication had ever existed — until 2025.
This gap was filled by Mykola Ovcharov — a researcher of oratorical art, founder of the Ovcharov Institute of Rhetoric, who since 2009 has been systematically studying and teaching rhetoric in Ukraine. In 2025, he founded the journal Unknown Orator and became its author and editor-in-chief. It is the first and only publication in the country entirely dedicated to the theory and practice of oratorical art.
Why a journal and not another book
Ovcharov explains how the idea for the journal emerged:
"When I began studying the subject of rhetoric, I searched for every book I could find — in libraries, in bookshops. And I realised there was not a single quality, contemporary book to be found. So I decided to write my own — that is how the book Master of Public Speaking was born. Later I immersed myself in the subject even further: I started ordering books on eBay, subscribed to the most authoritative English-language publications, and regularly read academic articles. That is when I realised that in Ukraine there is not a single journal on oratorical art — not one, and there never has been. And that is what prompted me to create this journal,"
— Mykola Ovcharov.
The publication comes out twice a year in two languages simultaneously — Ukrainian and English. This allows an international audience to discover a Ukrainian perspective on rhetoric, while giving the domestic reader a broader global context.
"We live in a time when the ability to recognise manipulation, think critically, and speak persuasively is a basic necessity. This journal is one of the tools that should contribute to the development of a democratic society,"
— he adds.
What it covers and where to read it
The first issue, published in 2025, was devoted to body language and non-verbal communication. The second addresses the theme of rhetoric and democracy: how the public word protects freedom, how authoritarian propaganda operates, and how communication transforms in times of war.
All materials from both issues are available in open access at сайті https://journal.ovcharov.institute/. The journal is also published in print. International registration: ISSN 3083-7294 (print), ISSN 3083-7480 (online), DOI 10.66597.
Who is Mykola Ovcharov
Mykola Ovcharov is a philosopher of rhetoric, translator, founder of the Ovcharov Institute of Rhetoric (Kyiv, 2009), researcher, lecturer, and author of the books Master of Public Speaking (2017), Small Ethics and Evidence-Based Argumentation (2024), How to Raise an Orator (2025), Book of Fools and Book of the Wise (2026). In 2025, he completed the first annotated translation of Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline into contemporary Ukrainian.
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