In December 1927, Rakovsky and Lev Kamenev held brief speeches in front of the Soviet Communist Party's Fifteenth Congress. The former was interrupted fifty-seven times by his opponents—Nikolai Bukharin, Martemyan Ryutin, and Lazar Kaganovich. Although, unlike Rakovsky, Kamenev used the occasion to appeal for reconciliation, he was himself interrupted twenty-four times by the same group.