A Night for Heroes

As Natalya Dmitruk walked onstage to accept her Time 2005 European Heroes award, she whispered to her Russian translator: "I can't believe I'm here with all these amazing people." That's certainly how we felt at Time in the presence of 25 of the individuals we had selected to feature in our third annual European Heroes special issue. Dmitruk, who's from Ukraine, was there because last fall she dared to tell the truth about the country's rigged presidential election.

Some of the other Heroes at last month's London event included screenwriter Richard Curtis and musician Bob Geldof, who were...