TROTSKY
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exiles to return to Petersburg, Trotsky for a time lived a political
life that was half-public, half-clandestine. Belonging to neither the
Menshevik nor Bolshevik faction, but contributing frequently to the
press of both and acting with a boldness neither could match, Trotsky
became the popular tribune of the revolutionary left. In October
there met in the capital the Soviet of Workers' Delegates-a kind of
rump parliament of representatives from the unions, left parties, and
popular organizations-in which Trotsky soon rose to the post of
chairman. Unlike the Bolsheviks, who until Lenin's arrival in Novem–
ber were skeptical about the Soviet because of fear it would threaten
their political identity, Trotsky grasped the enormous revolutionary
potential of this new and spontaneous organ of political action. His
personal fearlessness, his combination of firm political ends with
tactical ingenuity, and his incomparable gifts as an orator helped
transform him, at twenty-six, into a leader of the first rank: he
had entered upon the stage of modern history, where he stayed until
the ax of a murderer removed him. Here is a passage from one of
his speeches before the Soviet, a characteristic flare of virtuosity, in
which he tells about a conversation with a liberal who had urged
him
to moderation:
I recalled to him an incident from the French Revolution, when
the Convention voted that "the French people will not parley
with the enemy on their own territory." One of the members
of the Convention interrupted: "Have you signed a pact with
victory?" They answered him: "No, we have signed a pact
with death." Comrades, when the liberal bourgeoisie, as if
boasting of its treachery, tells us: "You are alone. Do you think
you can go on fighting without us? Have you signed a pact
with victory?" we throw our answer in their face: "No, we
have signed a pact with death."
In the fifty days of its existence the Soviet experienced the
dilemma so frequently faced by revolutionary institutions: it was
strong enough to frighten the government but not strong enough to
overthrow it. Finally, Czarism regained the initiative, for it was not
yet as fully discredited as it would be in 1917 and the revolutionary
movements were still unripe and inexperienced. In the repressions
that followed, thousands were killed and imprisoned; reaction once
again held Russia. Together with the other leaders of the Soviet,
