Its aim was to bring together talented young men and further educate them as community leaders, pro-Polish agitators and possibly for a role in the civil service of a future Polish state.
In the following year, it became a formal part of the larger conspirative organization Liga Polska ("Polish League") formed by Zygmunt Miłkowski (pseudonym Teodor Tomaż Jeż) from his exile in Switzerland in 1887.
Its activities included conspirative meetings in which the members studied and discussed issues from Polish history that were not part of the regular curricula at the universities of the partitioning powers.
Zet published the magazines Teka ("Portfolio"), Dla Polski ("For Poland"), Wici ("The Web"), which Polish students secretly circulated among themselves.
In 1894, a pro-Polish demonstration in Warsaw provoked a massive police action and led to the arrest of many Polish students including key Zet members.