In March 1917, the February Revolution forced the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, ending the Russian Empire. In August the new Provisional Government evacuated the imperial family and their retinue to Tobolsk to live in the former house of the Governor-General. With the October Revolution three months later, the Russian Civil War began, and the Bolsheviks quickly came to power in Tobolsk. After troops of the opposing White Army approached the city in the spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks moved the imperial family west to Yekaterinburg. They were executed there in July 1918, together with several of their retainers.