Nevertheless, Trotzky did not confine his attacks to Russia's allies. On the same day, while addressing the Soviet meeting, he made some extended remarks regarding the impending negotiations. "We shall be on our guard in the negotiations," he said, "and will not permit distortion of those principles of universal peace for which the Russian revolution is fighting. We shall allow no evasions and will make most categorical demands, both to our allies and to our enemies.... In no case shall we allow a wrong interpretation of our principles for a general peace. We shall confront our enemies with questions which will admit of no ambiguous answers. Every word spoken by us or by them will be written down and sent by wireless to all nations, who will be the judges of our negotiations. Under the influence of the working classes the German and Austrian Governments have agreed to place themselves in the dock. Be assured, comrades, that the prosecuting attorney, in the persons of the Russian revolutionary delegation, will speak with thunderous accusation against the diplomacy of all imperialists. It is all the same to us how the Allied and enemy imperialists treat us. We will carry on our independent class policy whatever they do.... Our Allies and our enemies must learn once for all that the Czars, the Kerenskys and the Miliukovs have passed...." On December 2, 1917, as agreed, the Russian peace delegates again crossed the lines and were escorted to Brest-Litovsk by the Germans, where the first session of the conference was opened. Three days later the Russian official version of the conference was issued from Petrograd: "The conference opened in the presence of the representatives of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. Field Marshal von Hindenburg and Field Marshal Hoetzendorf charged Prince Leopold of Bavaria with the negotiations, and he in his turn nominated his chief of staff, General Hoffmann. Other delegates received similar authority from their highest commander in chief. The enemy declaration was exclusively military. "Our delegates opened the conference with a declaration of our peace aims, in view of which an armistice was proposed. The enemy delegates replied that that was a question to be solved by the politicians. They said they were soldiers, having powers only to negotiate conditions of an armistice, and could add nothing to the declaration of Foreign Ministers Czernin and Von Kühlmann. "Our delegates, taking note of this evasive declaration, proposed that they should immediately address all the countries involved in the war, including Germany and her allies, and all States not represented at the conference, with a proposal to take part in drawing up the terms of an armistice on all fronts.