Two years ago Ukraine faced the second round of the Presidential election, on the results of which the Central Electoral Commission declared Victor Yanukovych the winner on 24 November 2004. However, mass protests against the falsification of the election did not allow that-time pro-authority candidate to occupy the main post in the country.

On 22 November the whole world got to know about Ukraine and Maydan [the central square of the capital, where the Orange Revolution took place]. Despite the cold morning, tens of thousands people gathered at the main square of the capital in order to defend together their right to chose.

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Today, 2 years after the dramatic presidential election, more and more politicians begin to fight for the rank of Maydan heroes, its organizers, defenders, and commanders. Because, despite the disillusionment with the post-Maydan developments, it still remains the brightest page of our history.

On the eve of 22 November, the presence of those pretending for a special role in the history of Maydan is growing in newspapers, at TV-programs and news agencies reports. And, under this noisy background, the decisive role of the main hero – the Nation – becomes more and more evident. The role of the people, who came to Maydan, because they could not stay away. The people, who presented a chance to the today’s politicians to become those who they are now (and this is already another question – how yesterday heroes used this confidence and trust…) The people, for who the Day of Freedom is not a holiday, appointed with a decree, but a day when they made their personal choice – to come to Maydan and to change the country.

Is it worth to say anything else? Perhaps, just to recall…

UNIAN proposes you to make it together… We open our own news-line of the year 2004 for a free access.

Two years ago, agency’s journalists, as always, were in the thick of things. We were on duty at rallies, visited camps of both the orange and the white-blue, reported about the developments at the Verkhovna Rada, the Presidential Administration, the government, the Central Electoral Commission.

Read how it happened, beginning since 21 November 2004 – the day of the second round of the presidential election