"And so those serving in the government often combined improvisation with the maximum deployment of the minimum of competence. The story of one of the highest Soviet officials of the time--Stanislav Pestkovsky-- bears witness to this. During the last days of October, he went over to Smolny in search of work. He called on Lenin and Trotsky, and on his way out, found the People's Commissar for Finances, Menzhinsky, stretched out on a divan in the corridor. Menzhinsky hailed him and asked him if he had ever done any studies. 'I did a bit at London University' replied Pestkovsky, 'finance among other things' At this Menzhinsky lept up from his divan 'Finance!' he cried 'Magnificent. In that case we shall make you the director of the state bank.' ' I was alarmed' Pestkovsky recounted later ' and told him banking was entirely outside my province. But Menzhinsky's only reply was to ask me to wait. He was gone a few minutes and then returned with a piece of paper with Lenin's signature on it. It was the decree appointing me Director of the State Bank'"
Regarding the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations: " ..on their way to the station one of the Bolshevik plenipotentiaries had remarked that without a true representative of the Russian peasantry, the delegation would be incomplete. To fill this gap they asked a moujik passer-by to join them on their official excursion to Brest-Litovsk. Taken by surprise, the peasant accepted and was in fact at all the parleys. Though this was his sole contribution to the peace treaty, he certainly made a strong impression on the Austrian and German representatives, some of whom never ceased wondering at the enormous quantities of alcohol this strange diplomat put away during diplomatic dinners. And what surprised them even more, as one of the Germans explained, this Russian spokesman was completely indifferent to the finer distinctions between white win and red wine, however carefully selected."
" Trotsky's words did not simply introduce a new style of diplomatic usage, they bore witness to an entirely new approach, as did the actions of Russia's other delegates. One of these was Karl Radek, a hardened militant who had played an important part in German and Polish left-wing politics before the war. He traveled with Trotsky to Brest-Litovsk, and as soon as the train stopped and while the Russian delegation was exchanging greetings with the cream of Germany's and Austria's diplomatic corps, he turned his back on this august assembly and in the most natural way began to distribute revolutionary pamphlets among the German soldiers forming the guard of honor."
" In his Russia and the West under Lenin and Stalin, the American diplomat G.F. Kennan alleges that Radek amused himself by blowing pipesmoke into the face of the German Commander, Major-General Max Hoffmann and that he stared at him in an insulting way. However, such behavior was too extreme even for Radek, so that this story must be treated with some reserve."
--from The Russian Revolution by Marcel Liebman
Sam Pawlett