An Age of Reform 361
to his support. Eleven of them yielded under pressure, but 115 were indeed
relegated at their own request, with the proviso that they might apply for
readmission after two to three years.^49 The penalty was mild-and indirectly
helped to spread dissent to provincial centres. Cadets in other institutions
remained quiescent and the participants' aims were very modest; the affair
owed much to chivalrous sentiment and scarcely menaced the autocracy.
Perhaps the most significant feature was that a similar protest had been staged
the year before by Polish students at Warsaw's new Medical-Surgical
Academy.^50
The situation in the Congress kingdom was by this time becoming more and
more acute, and in February 1861 five men were killed in a clash between troops
and demonstrators. Although the authorities tried to appease public opinion,
further violence followed and the movement soon began to spread into
Lithuania and White Russia; both regions were placed under some form of
martial law. It was in these promising circumstances that D1browski left St.
Petersburg for Warsaw, where he was appointed quarter-master of an infantry
division^51 -a post that provided excellent cover for revolutionary activity. He
became the leading light in the patriots' Warsaw organization, which soon
developed into a National Central Committee (KCN).^52 He was also the key
figure in developing a conspiratorial network among Polish and Russian dissi-
dent officers stationed in Poland and beyond its borders. A total of three to
four hundred men are now known to have had contact with this organization,
which came to be called the Committee of Russian Officers in Poland.^53 One
of its most important links was with Vil'na, where Captain Ludwik Zwiezdow-
ski, who had belonged to the General Staff Academy circle, was now adjutant
to the military governor, General V. I. Nazimov^54 -another strategic post.
Ties were also maintained with Kiev (Lieutenant F. P. Warawski), Moscow
(H. Kieniewicz), and St. Petersburg, where the parent organization, now
somewhat enfeebled, was run mainly by two subalterns, W. W. Pogo~elski
and P.-E. J. JundziR, who were studying at two of the military academies in
the city.^55
The security authorities soon managed to intercept the dissident officers'
correspondence and in February 1862 a member of the organization, Lieute-
49 D'yakov, 'Peterburgskiye ofitserskiye organizatsii', p. 292; cf. Kolokol 92 (15 Feb. 1861),
p. 777.
so Leslie, Reform and Insurrection, pp. 82-3.
51 Smirnov, Revol. svyazi narodov, p. 206; Kukiel, 'Military Aspects', p. 377.
52 Kieniewicz et al., Vosstaniye, i. 511-13; Wandycz, Lands of Partitioned Poland, pp. 169-70;
Leslie, Reform and Insurrection, p. 146.
SJ For a list of members, see D'yakov, 'Alfavimyy spisok ... ', RSR iii (1963), 34-82; cf.
Kieniewi.cz et al., Vosstaniye, i. 477-86.
54 Leykina-Svirskaya and Shidlovskaya, 'Pol'skaya revol. organizatsiya', p. 27; Smirnov,
Revol. svyazi narodov, p. 213; Amburger, Geschichte, p. 392.
ss Leykina.Svirskaya and Shidlovskaya, 'Pol'skaya revol. organizatsiya', pp. 34, 38; D'yakov,
'Peterburgskiye ofitserskiye organizatsii', pp. 312, 332; there was also a civilian circle led by
J. Ogryszko.