2-34 KONGRESOWKA
Violence and confusion erupted on the night of 29 November. An assassina-
tion squad of around twenty-four men headed by Ludwik Nabielak was to
attack the Belweder Palace and kill or capture the Grand Duke Constantine,
whilst a detachment of Officer Cadets under Wysocki was to march into the city
centre, disarm the Russian garrison, and seize the Arsenal. Everything went
wrong from the start. The fire in a deserted brewery which was intended as the
signal for co-ordinated action, was started half an hour early, before the con-
spirators were in position. Its flames alerted the garrison, and filled the streets
with troops and firemen. At Belweder, the assassins burst into the palace,
stabbed a uniformed figure standing before the Grand Duke's suite and shot
another as he fled from the back door. Their first victim was the Governor of
Warsaw, Lubovitsky, their second the Russian General Gendre. As they rushed
into the city shouting 'The Grand Duke is dead', Constantine emerged from his
wife's bedroom, where he had taken refuge, and tried to organize his staff. In the
city, the cadets retreated from a vain attack on the cavalry barracks. Soon they
were joined by a raging mob. General Potocki, a patriotic Pole, who declined to
take command; when he attempted to pacify the crowd, he was shot. General
Trebicki, their own Commandant, suffered the same fate for the same reason,
having cursed his pupils as 'ignorant murderers'. Another Pole, General
Lewicki, mistaken in the dark for the Russian, General Novitsky, was killed in
his carriage. The Arsenal was rushed by the mob. The Grand Duke refused to
commit his troops. The Poles have started this disturbance', he said, 'and it's
Poles that must stop it.' A regiment of the Polish Light Horse advanced as far as
the Castle Square, but lacking clear orders, held back. By midnight, stalemate
was reached. The rebels were in control of the town, but the Russian garrison
was still intact. Prince Lubecki was the only person to keep a cool head. Calling
the Administrative Council together, and in consultation with Czartoryski, he
agreed to take the lead in ending the rebellion and reaching an accommodation
with the Tsar. This 'November, Night' was a drama which most of its actors
would have liked to forget.^11
Owing to the ineptitude of the original conspirators, political leadership of
the Rising passed immediately to people who had never favoured armed insur-
rection and who had every intention of avoiding a confrontation with Russia if
at all possible. Hence the political aims of the Rising were only formulated after
its outbreak, and at first were entirely conciliatory. The Provisional
Government which appeared on 3 December was nothing other than a
revamped version of the old Administrative Council. It was formed at Lubecki's
instigation, and concealed its essentially conservative makeup by co-opting
Julian Niemcewicz and Joachim Lelewel, together with Prince Czartoryski and
General Jozef Chtopicki (1771-1854). Within a week, it surrendered its formal
authority to Chtopicki, whose personal dictatorship was considered to offer a
more efficient means of pursuing its objectives. At this stage, full priority was
given to the task of reaching an amicable settlement with the Tsar. Nothing was
done to avoid further provocation. Grand Duke Constantine was allowed to