The biggest, or at least most well-attended, parts of the Kyiv protest have been the rallies. They started when tens of thousands gathering to witness the results of the election vote count, then snowballed into an enormous landslide of winter activism. Starting on Wednesday, and for the remainder of the week, rallies gathered together over a million people in the center of Kyiv.

The attendance at the rallies seems to have leveled off, but I think it was still above a million at the rally Lesya and I joined on Sunday.

To get to Maidan (Independence Square) we walked down along the central part of Tent City. The tent residents were there, of course, but around them was a mass of people heading to or from Maidan. There were occasional clusters of friends meeting up, or young people gathered around a stereo playing "Razom Nas Bahato". Game day noisemakers sounded off continuously, as did the horns on cars headed away up side streets.

A carful of kids was almost keeping pace with us, trolling along the sidewalk and playing rockabilly music. The older people in the crowd seemed a little uncomfortable in the rock festival atmosphere, but a lot of the older people I know here have impressed me with their ability to jump into an energetic event and hold up. They were doing just fine.

Independence Square was packed. The stage was surrounded by people all the way around to the back. More people flowed away in front and up the stairs and throughout the plaza. They broke at the ring of tents surrounding the towering monument that dominates Maidan: a pillar topped with a golden statue of a woman in traditional Ukrainian dress.

One of the bands giving free concerts for the protesters was warming up the crowd before the politicians started giving speeches. The middle-aged lead singer said "Get your hands up and wave them with us; everyone now!" People waved.

"We're here for peace, and the whole world is with us!" he said. Of course we were!

Lesya and I joined in the good old-fashioned love-in.

After the love-in, Socialist Party Leader Oleksandr Moroz got up and gave a hard-nosed speech on what the government was up to. Lesya and I worked our way through the crowd, in search of a better vantage point. The people were packed in tighter than on Independence Day or New Year's, maybe tighter than both combined. We worked our way around by the statue and went up to search for a place on the bridge connecting the second floor of a flashy aboveground/underground mall to October Palace. It provided a perfect view out over the people to the stage, so I was surprised we were still able to find places.

We got to the bridge just as Yuliya Timoshenko stood up to speak.

Timoshenko is great; she's a former big time businesswoman who made somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million bucks during the crazy post-Communism days, then got into Ukrainian politics. This wouldn't be particularly significant next to the big oligarchs, most of whom also have lots of political ties, or are politicians themselves. However, when Timoshenko became Vice PM in charge of the Fuel and Energy Complex, she started taking her job seriously: by applying the law to punish corrupt businessmen. The oligarchs didn't like that much, so they made a fuss and Kuchma let her twist in the wind. This is something he will probably regret for the rest of his life.

Timoshenko has been imprisoned, hunted, and repeatedly subject to investigations, despite the fact that imprisoning deputies is illegal. (one of the main reason there are so many oligarchs in Parliament) She has responded by becoming the fieriest political activist in the country. Ukrainians either love her for what she says about the "bandits in power," or hate her for the ten million she made (and the government has repeatedly pilloried her for since she started cracking down on corruption).

She was at full burn in Maidan on Sunday. Every once in a while she would throw in a bit of "Kuchma Ghet!" (Kuchma Out!) or "Bandi Ghet" (Cabal Out!) as she told us Yanukovych was on the run and Kuchma was being pushed back. She had lots of material to work with, Yanukovych's press secretary had recently announced he'd run away to Luhansk, and the rumor was that he was meeting the Mayor of Moscow there.

"Here are our demands before another round of the election," she said.

"First, fire Yanukovych for his obvious election fraud, and for supporting separatist groups!" she cried.

"Hoorah!" We cried.

"Second, fire the officials in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv for agitating to break apart the Ukrainian state!"

"Hoorah!"

"Third, fire the Central Election Committee, and elect new members who will not take part in falsifications!"

"Hoorah!"

She went on, condemning the efforts of Kuchma and other senior government figures to divide up the country between them, or barring that, to steal off pieces of the country for themselves.

"Bandi ghet!" she cried.

"Bandi ghet!" we all cried.

Watching Timoshenko flame the government, especially her arch-enemy Kuchma, was a refreshing contrast to Yushchenko. One of the best things about Yushchenko is that the government's accusation that his is a radical is so wrong. He is a mild-mannered moderate. He hardly even seemed to raise his voice until someone tried to assassinate him. He's an accountant. This makes him a good, intelligent presidential candidate, but much less fun to watch. Timoshenko talks like a populist. Or shouts, rather.

"Don't forget that the whole world is with you!" she cried at the end, the only time she resembled the hippie-sounding rock star. "Will you stay with us until the end?"

"Yes!" we all cried.

Timoshenko stepped back, and the band struck up the national anthem, "Ukraine is Not Yet Dead", a nice rousing piece of music, if not exactly an upper.

Then one of the less senior politicians got up to talk about details with the audience: when to be at the President's office to lend support to Yushchenko in his talk with Kuchma, when to be at another location to make sure the government can't attempt any "manipulations"... We left after they started discussing details, but some of the people stayed much longer.

Each evening brings a new high wave of activity around 6-10, and then long lulls until the next night, but the protesting never truly stops.