The article considers the object and subject of political rhetoric as a scientific discipline, shows the differences between political rhetoric and the theory of political communication, and provides a classification of modern Russian political speech. The object of political rhetoric - oral and written speech of any genre, used as a means of obtaining and exercising state power and influencing power structures. The subject of political rhetoric is the realization of rhetorical categories "ethos", "logos", "pathos" and "image of the rhetor" and parts of the rhetorical canon in political speech, as well as the functions of political speech. Modern Russian political speech is divided into state and civil speech. State speech is divided into presidential, parliamentary, governmental and gubernatorial speech, civil speech - into pre-election and non-election speech. The basis for classification is the rhetor's position in relation to the state power.
