Adam Mickiewicz had ended his five-year Russian…

Adam Mickiewicz had ended his five-year Russian exile in 1829, having obtained permission to travel abroad.

He had secretly made up his mind never to return to Russia, or to his own native land so long as it remained under Russian imperial rule.

Wending his way to Weimar, he there had made the acquaintance of Goethe, who received him cordially, and, pursuing his journey through Germany, had entered Italy by the Splügen Pass, visited Milan, Venice and Florence, and finally established his residence in Rome.

Here he writes the third part of his poem Dziady (Forefathers' Eve), which adverts to the ancestor commemoration that had been practiced by Slavic and Baltic peoples; and Pan Tadeusz, his longest poem, which is considered his masterpiece.

Hearing of the outbreak of the November Insurrection fomented in 1830 by Polish nationalists, he attempts, unsuccessfully, to return to Poland.