 Dmowski was born on 9 August 1864 in Warsaw 's Kamionek district , in Congress Poland ( Vistula Land ) , then part of the Russian Empire . His father was a road construction worker and later an entrepreneur . Dmowski attended schools in Warsaw , studying biology and zoology at Warsaw University , from which he graduated in 1891 . As a student he became active in the Polish Youth Association " Zet " ( Związek Młodzieży Polskiej " Zet " ) , where he was active in opposing socialist activists . He also organized a student street demonstration on the 100th anniversary of the Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791 . For this he was imprisoned by the Russian Tsarist authorities for five months in the Warsaw Citadel . Since 1890 he was also developing as a writer and publicist , publishing political and literary critique in Głos , where he became close friends with Jan Ludwik Popławski , who would be his mentor . 
