THE THAW AND THE JANUARY RISING 259clergymen were deported. The Citadel was packed with thousands of arrested
persons. Inevitably, almost all the political groups formed in recent times took
counter-measures, and began to consider concerted resistance. In October, a
secret City Committee was organized by the radical 'Reds'. Its purpose was to
prepare an armed struggle in support of national independence and social revo-
lution. Its leading figures at this stage were Apollo Korzeniowski (1820-69), the
father of Joseph Conrad, Ignacy Chmielenski (1830-70), an advocate of random
terrorism, and Jarostaw Dabrowski (1836-71), an army Captain recently trans-
ferred from St. Petersburg. In December, a rival Directory (also known as the
National Delegation) was organized by the 'Whites' under Kronenburg and
Zamoyski. At the end of the year, Wielopolski was curtly ordered to proceed to
St. Petersburg under guard, and to explain himself to the Tsar.
The Marquis's inimitable formula was nicely contradictory, but could not be
bettered. Reform could not be abandoned for fear of popular disillusionment.
Repression could not be relaxed for fear of renewed disorder. So Reform and
Repression must proceed in concert. After five months of hesitation, the Tsar
suddenly gave formal approval to Wielopolski's proposals. In June, Wielopolski
returned to Warsaw and took office as the Head of the Civil Administration. In
accordance with a decree provisionally published in the previous year, the peas-
ants were to commute labour dues into money payments. The year 1862 saw the
first harvest in central Poland where no serf need have provided labour for his
lord without remuneration. In the autumn term, the Main School admitted the
first intake of students into its Medical, Mathematical, and Philosophical
Faculties. At the same time, the police undertook a wave of preventive arrests.
In August, Jaroslaw Dabrowski was arrested and sent to Russia for trial. In
September, Zamoyski was summoned to St. Petersburg, and after a brief inter-
view with the Tsar, was given a passport and placed on a ship leaving for
France. Wielopolski could smell a rebellion, but was unable to trace its source.
He decided to force it into the open. His chosen instrument was the Branka, or
'forced conscription'. After saturating the Kingdom with 100,000 troops, he pre-
pared to draft 30,000 young men into military service. He did not know who the
conspirators were, but could be sure that most of their able-bodied supporters
would be caught among the draftees. The Branka was timed for 14 January
- It was the immediate cause of open hostilities.
Owing to the activities of Wielopolski and to the prolonged tension, the out-
break of the January Rising took a very different course to the events of 1830.
Wielopolski was very conscious of the precedent, and intent on avoiding a repeat
performance. As it happened, he provoked a conflict of a different nature but of
no less gravity. He knew that the conspirators would have to flee the Branka in
order to survive; and he knew that they could not possibly hope to have an army
or civil service at their command. What he did not realize was that they did have
a fully fledged political programme, an extensive financial organization which
was already raising funds, and the cadres of an underground state. In military
terms, the Polish insurrectionists of 1863 were of necessity worse equipped than