This square has witnessed many dramatic scenes in Polish history. Patriotic demonstrations took place there during the period before the outbreak of the January Uprising of 1863. On February 27, 1861, Russian bullets killed five people. On April 8, 1861 five rota of infantry and two troops of Russian cavalry (about 1,300 people) led by General Stepan Aleksandrovich Khrulyov ( ru ) carried out a bloody massacre of civilians, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people.