There was a troubled political situation in Russia. The October Revolution in 1917 established the first communist state in the world. There was no room for the tsar and his family. The Romanov's power should disappear.

On March 1917, just a few months after casting out the monarchy, the provisional government put Nicolas and his family under house arrest at the Alexander Palace. That same year, in August, the Kerenski's administration resolved to take the Romanovs to Tobolsk's residence in order to protect them against the wrath of the revolutionaries.
When the Bolsheviks took office, the situation changed. The communists' pressure to prosecute the monarchs was on the rise.

The rebellion of the white movement that confronted the communists and was supposed to help release the royal family sealed the Romanovs' fate.

Communists opted for ending with the Romanov dynasty to prevent it from achieving its splendor again. On July 17th, 1918, at 2:30 a.m., Russian tsar Nicolas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children -Alexis, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia- together with the family's doctor and three servants, were woken up and misled into the basement of trader Ipatiev's residence, where they had been shut away. There, a firing squad composed of 12 men of the Bolshevik secret police shot at them.

There was a legend about the fate of Prince Alexis and Princess Anastasia. For many years, it was thought that Nicolas' daughter survived the cruel assassination. However, in 1991, human remains were found, thus ending with the speculation.

Amidst such turmoil, nearby, in the aftermath of World War I, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was born in October -one of the successors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Other news astounded the world in 1918. On April 21st, Manfred von Richthofen -the Red Baron- took off from Capy, France, to accomplish his next-to-be final mission. Shortly after, his triplane, flown by him to hit 80 victories in World War I, was shot down.

Widespread death
The Spanish flu left thousand deaths around the world, and Venezuela could not get rid of it. On October 1918, it spread over the whole country. The disease claimed 25,000 fatalities, including Alí Gómez, a son of General Juan Vicente Gómez.

The pandemic that caused the death of approximately 20 million people all over the world was brought in Venezuela by a traveler who arrived in La Guaira port. The government spent USD 42 to face the health crisis. Still, such an amount was not enough to prevent the disaster.