ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1917 Trotzky in turn received his 'third revolutionary baptism'. He took up his position in the political foreground of Petrograd, at the side of Lenin. Behind them, in the shadow, at the heart of the Party and its Politburo, Koba-Djugachvili Stalin was hard at work. At the National Conference of Military Groups convoked by Stalin in order to obtain support for the activity of his secret Military Committee, Trotzky made a vehement speech, inciting the troops to an immediate insurrection: 'This Bonaparte of a Kerensky will summon you presently to an offensive against the German Army. While the Congress was sitting, Kerensky began to make preparations for a great offensive against the German armies. He hoped a military success would enable him to deal with the defeatists. Despite the impotence of Kerensky and the Provisional Government, the Liberal forces reacted, awakening to the actual state of affairs.
