America is the country of democracy, freedom of speech and individualism, but there are still societies in which this situation is not the case. Lets think of USSR for example. What happened after it broke apart? What happened to all of the countries which has become independent? What hapened to each of them? But let us just think of one of them: Ukraine. After USSR broke apart, there were lots of problems in society. Communism was not the main power any more, but the roots were still there. Nothing seem to change much, at least not in peoples' minds.
In 2004 Ukraine had new President's elections. According to the results, representative of power Viktor Yanukovich had won. People of the country were not quite sure of such a result though. They knew how corrupt their society was. No one knew who was the first one to think of changes. If all the time before 2004 people could only think of changes, now they realized that that's the time to create them themselves. They went out to the main squere of Kiev to protest. But they understood that one day meeting is not going to change anything. That is why people created a tent city in support of their candidate to president's position - Viktor Yushenko. That could be considered the beginning of The Revolution. People from all over Ukraine were coming to support their candidate while staying in the tents during the cold winter. I was lucky enough to come to the capital at that point. It was significant, and I could actually feel the spirit of The Revolution. I felt connected to and united with all the people who were standing there, everyone who supported this act of Democracy. I felt like Ukrainian nation not just woke up but rose up from the ashes. People with power understood that Ukrainians are not going to give up at that point. It was useless to continue rejecting the truth: the main commitie has agreed on the fact that election results were false. The new date of election was established.
The protest succeded. Peoples President has won. What did it change? First of all, people have realized, that they can create their own future. They went out there and said that they wanted the elections to be fair! They were not afraid to express their thoughts any more. They have gotten more freedom, they have seen democracy, they have gotten a feeling of what that is, and hopefuly they will not give that experience away. The idea that the group is much more important then the individual is kind off went to the past. Sure, it will take some time, several generations would switch before the society becomes complitly individualisd. But now people have a hope for a better future. The Orange revolution has increased not only civic awarenes in Ukraine in general, but also in other countries, because it was on the news all over the World. I think, Ukraine has set a great example of pieceful Revolutionary changes to many countries.
