24. In Petrograd¶
Core Argument¶
Trotsky’s journey from Halifax to Petrograd is described as a tunnel into the revolution. At Beloostrov, he was met by Bolsheviks and United Internationalists, but no Mensheviks; he learned that Chernov, Tsereteli and Skobelev had joined the coalition Provisional government, confirming the need for an implacable struggle alongside the Bolsheviks against the Mensheviks and Populists. At the Finnish terminal, he called for preparing a second revolution. The Executive Committee granted him only an advisory role. He characterises his opponents with contempt: Tsereteli as a gifted but limited non-revolutionary, Kerensky as a petty braggart, and Skobelev as a former pupil who later became a Stalinist.
Life in Petrograd was a whirl of mass meetings. Trotsky, having learned from 1905 to guard his voice, was rarely out of the ranks. Meetings filled plants, schools, theatres, circuses, streets and squares. He would return home after midnight, only to be dragged from bed at seven by calls to Peterhof or Kronstadt. Hidden nervous energy allowed him to speak for hours, while delegations reported thousands of workers waiting elsewhere. The Modern Circus was Trotsky’s particular fortress; opponents never attempted to speak there, but shouted in the Soviet, “This is not your Modern Circus.” Audiences were workers, soldiers, mothers and street urchins. Every inch was filled; infants suckled while mothers shouted. The crowd’s electric tension forced unexpected arguments from Trotsky’s subconsciousness. Leaving was difficult; the crowd refused to disperse. Friends would push him into Kseshinskaya’s palace, now the Bolshevik general staff.
Trotsky recounts the living difficulties and hostility of neighbours, and how the sailor Nikolai Markin silently enforced proletarian dictatorship in their house, secured a newspaper, fought wine-looting, and broke sabotage at the foreign ministry. Markin was later killed in the civil war on the Kama. After his death, two boys wept inconsolably in the night; Markin had treated them as equals, confiding his personal grief and teaching them to use revolvers in the ministry basement. He was a revolutionary hero like those in fairy tales. After meetings, student Poznansky began guarding Trotsky, remaining attached for years on special missions. On 3 December, Trotsky reported on the Soviet government’s work, explaining the publication of tsarist and Kerensky’s diplomatic correspondence. He repeated his answer to conciliationists: he knew only one revolutionary language, spoken to the people and to the Allies and Germans. Prolonged applause followed. His connection with the Circus ended in February, when he left for Moscow.