Polish media suddenly became full of analyses and comments trying to answer the questions: What results will the second round of elections bring? How will the president Leonid Kuczma and his team behave if Wiktor Juszczenko wins the elections? How will Russia react? And at last the question which might not be most important but highly emotive: Who poisoned Juszczenko? Especially this last question providing feelings of sympathy and possibly disbelief caused an enormous growth of liking for the leader of the Orange and for the issue of democra- tisation of Ukraine. Liking was additionally caused by the closure of investigation into this matter by the Ukrainian General Public Prosecutor's Office on 22 October, with the justification that there were no traces of poison in the candidate's body and there was no evidence as to its use .
At that time the Orange Revolution was beginning to rise. As early as 23 October the media informed about 100 000 demonstrators at the Central Election Commission on Lesia Ukrainka square and about attacks of the government on the only independent Channel 5. Our Polish liking was unambiguous and gave voice to the debate on Ukrainian events initiated by Polish Euro-MPs or the open letter signed by over a hundred outstanding figures of the world of politics, media and science, in which it was written: "We follow with close attention a dramatic course of election campaign in Ukraine. We are aware of the fact how important is the support of the public opinion in the world for the Ukrainian society (...) We owe it to the Ukraine, ourselves and the world. Ukrainian democracy needs our solidarity. Feel positive about it! Do not let the hope disappear."3 .The most important fact was that the official results of the first round of elections pointed to a narrow victory (0.5% voices) of Wiktor Juszczenko, which gave our hearts some comfort and hope. Thus, the issue faded a bit until 22 November, when yet unofficial results pointed to the victory of Wiktor Janu- kowycz and the crowd of dissatisfied and disappointed people began to gather and grow on Ma- jdan. The people before whom Wiktor Juszczenko took a presidential oath the very next day, the oath unimportant from the formal legislative point of view, but so much important symbolically.
Polish society and politicians were overcome with stronger and stronger emotions. In Kiev, Warsaw, Poznac, Lublin and all other cities enthusiastic people created chains of solidarity, went on marches, took part in mass meetings and gatherings. The political membership and views did not matter. That only time Lech Kaczycski and Marek Borowski were marching side by side and the voices of Jerzy Buzek and Bronisiaw Geremek harmonised with the voices of Marek Belka or Wiodzimierz Cimosiewicz. Among all the excitement one could hear a very important slogan: "Kiev-Warsaw! Common matter! ("Kijyw- Warszawa! Wspylna sprawa!")"[4]. Polish politicians were initiators and active participants of the actions in Poland and got involved in the situation in Ukraine. In Kiev appeared Lech WaiKsa and Zbigniew Bujak, but above all a special group headed by Jacek Kluczkowski, whose task was to prepare the ground for the arrival of Aleksander Kwasniewski to Ukraine. Aleksander Kwasniewski along with Valdas Adamkus and Javier Solana and later also Borys Giyzlow became a group of mediators leading to and taking part in the talks at the Ukrainian 'round table'. In Poland the transmission in the media was very simple and quite unambiguous. After 15 years Ukraine again took a civic challenge to leap up and in the minds of Poles appeared some associations with the scenes of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and memories of the enthusiasm which accompanied the first yet not entirely free elections in 1989. When finally the decision to rehold the second round of elections was taken and Juszczenko spoke to the crowds: "Since today Ukraine has been democratic. I congratulate free residents on a free country. We showed we are not "billy-goats" and there is a nation which will not allow to be cheated!"5, we felt proud of our engagement and rejoiced at the success.
On December 26, following the third round of negotiations the results of exit polls gave a clear victory to Wiktor Juszczenko and on Monday president Aleksander Kwasniewski was the first to phone to congratulate him, after the results from 99.8% of district commissions had been announced. The coaches with tired, but happy observers started to return to Poland. The majority of them worked in the hardest southern and eastern parts of Ukraine. The atmosphere of excitement and happiness could be felt. There was also the atmosphere of success of the Ukrainian victory on the one hand, and rubbing Russian's
