The scenes in Belgrade have borne a striking resemblance to those witnessed in Berlin and Prague and Bucharest and Moscow in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The world has once more watched a people determined to take power from an oppressive regime which has not, and never had, a democratic mandate. Their courage and their success has been overwhelming.
Such moments in history are not only uplifting but can be fraught with danger. At the time of writing, although at least two people may have lost their lives, the pro-democracy demonstrators in Belgrade have, thankfully, avoided serious bloodshed. Foremost among the dramatic events of Belgrade's day of revolution, was the setting fire to the parliament building. The burning of a parliament, to Western eyes, may appear to be the antithesis of democracy but things are different in Belgrade. The Yugoslav parliament has been the symbol of a toadying subservience to the Milosevic regime. When his term as President of Serbia ended, it was this parliament which handed Mr Milosevic the presidency of the Yugoslav Federation and permitted him to transfer his power structure from one undemocratic polity to another.
In the past four years, democratic Serbs have suffered immensely at Mr Milosevic's hands while he and his wife, Mirjana Markovic, enriched themselves at the expense of their people. Those people have rebelled on more than one occasion. At midnight on January 6th 1997, for example, half a million Serbs took to the streets of Belgrade in the biggest political demonstration of the decade. But Mr Milosevic remained in power. A year ago, Yugoslavia found itself under attack from NATO in a conflict largely brought about by the actions of the regime. But Milosevic remained in power.
Originally a communist, Mr Milosevic turned to Serbian nationalism in his determination to retain his wealth and privileges. The playing of the Kosovan card, his use of what to Serbs is their most emotive symbol - the battlefield of Kosovo Polje - worked briefly for Slobodan Milosevic but in the end turned out to be his undoing.
Under Milosevic, Serbs have not only been deprived of freedom but they have lost a territory which has been the very symbol of their national identity. They have had every motivation to do what they have done in the course of the historic events on the streets of Belgrade. They have shown that despite the hardships of the past year, their appetite for freedom has not diminished.
Mr Vojislav Kostunica has declared himself President and began his address to a huge crowd of demonstrators with the sentence "Welcome to liberated Serbia." His choice of words was significant. The political entity to which he referred was that of Serbia rather than Yugoslavia, for Montenegro may now secede.
It should be remembered that Mr Kostunica is a Serbian nationalist who, though pro-European, holds views that may not be welcome everywhere in the West. A post-Milosevic administration may harbour a nationalism and a desire to regain the territory of Kosovo that would be unacceptable to most Western governments. It would, however, have the distinct advantage of being, at long last, democratically representative of the Serbian people.