Editing Adam Mickiewicz (section)

===Imprisonment and exile===
[[File:Zinaida Volkonskaya's salon.jpeg|thumb|250px|Princess [[Zinaida Volkonskaya]]'s Moscow [[salon (gathering)|salon]], frequented by Mickiewicz]]
In 1817, while still a student, Mickiewicz, [[Tomasz Zan]] and other friends had created a secret organization, the [[Philomaths]].<ref name="psb695"/> The group focused on self-education but had ties to a more radical, clearly pro-Polish-independence student group, the [[Filaret Association]].<ref name="psb695"/> An investigation of secret student organizations by [[Nikolay Novosiltsev]], begun in early 1823, led to the arrests of a number of students and ex-student activists including Mickiewicz, who was taken into custody and imprisoned at [[Basilian Monastery in Vilnius|Vilnius' Basilian Monastery]] in late 1823 or early 1824 (sources disagree as to the date).<ref name="psb695"/> After investigation into his political activities, specifically his membership in the Philomaths, in 1824 Mickiewicz was banished to central Russia.<ref name="psb695"/> Within a few hours of receiving the decree on 22 October 1824, he penned a poem into an album belonging to {{ill|Salomea Słowacka|lt=Salomea Bécu|pl|Salomea Słowacka}}, the mother of [[Juliusz Słowacki]].<ref name="mickiewitch"/> (In 1975 this poem was set to music in Polish and Russian by Soviet composer [[David Tukhmanov]].)<ref name="popsa"/> Mickiewicz crossed the border into Russia about 11 November 1824, arriving in [[Saint Petersburg]] later that month.<ref name="psb695"/> He would spend most of the next five years in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, except for a notable 1824 to 1825 excursion to [[Odessa]], then on to [[Crimea]].<ref name="cze218"/> That visit, from February to November 1825, inspired a notable collection of [[sonnet]]s (some love sonnets, and a series known as ''[[Crimean Sonnets]]'', published a year later).<ref name="psb695"/><ref name="cze218"/><ref name="psb696"/>

Mickiewicz was welcomed into the leading literary circles of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, where he became a great favourite for his agreeable manners and an extraordinary talent for poetic improvisation.<ref name="psb696"/> The year 1828 saw the publication of his poem ''[[Konrad Wallenrod]]''.<ref name="psb696"/> Novosiltsev, who recognized its patriotic and subversive message, which had been missed by the Moscow censors, unsuccessfully attempted to sabotage its publication and to damage Mickiewicz's reputation.<ref name="Koropeckyj2008"/><ref name="psb696"/>

In Moscow, Mickiewicz met the Polish journalist and novelist [[Henryk Rzewuski]] and the Polish composer and piano virtuoso [[Maria Szymanowska]], whose daughter, [[Celina Szymanowska]], Mickiewicz would later marry in Paris, France. He also befriended the great Russian poet [[Alexander Pushkin]]<ref name="psb696"/> and [[Decembrist]] leaders including [[Kondraty Ryleyev]].<ref name="cze218"/> It was thanks to his friendships with many influential individuals that he was eventually able to obtain a passport and permission to leave Russia for Western Europe.<ref name="psb696"/>