New Year's Eve, Kiev

From an account written by a former PhD student, visiting Ukraine after a long absence.

"Exactly at midnight the best male voice of Ukraine, Olexandr Ponomariov, fired 'Sche ne vmerla Ukraina'. I heard several tens of thousands singing the Ukrainian Anthem in Lviv in 91. But not 1.5 mln! I've seen tears in many eyes. The tears of success that they stood up to a government machine and they overcame it.

Ukraine's glory and freedom have not yet perished, We shall still see the fortune smile for us...

I saw proud people, I saw happy people, I saw the emergence of the Ukrainian nation. It was not the nation of beggars, a herd of timid sheep, it was self-assertive people, full of optimism.

...About 1:30am we started moving down Khreschatyk among piles of champaign bottles. As we kept walking along miles of tents, which housed thousands of protestors, one could read names of cities, towns and villages. And the tune "Razom nas bahato -- nas ne podolaty" ("Together we are many, we can't be defeated") kept on reverberating in our heads..."

This Times article describes how close the protests came to eliciting a Soviet-style crackdown, which was averted by the actions of top security officers.