 The commune was led by Stepan Shahumyan until 26 July 1918 when the Bolsheviks were forced out of power by a coalition of Dashnaks, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.After the overthrow, the Baku commissars attempted to escape but were captured by the White Army and placed in a Baku prison.On 14 September Red Army soldiers broke into the prison and freed the commissars who then boarded a ship to Krasnovodsk, where they were promptly arrested, and on the night of 20 September 1918 executed by a firing squad between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma of the Transcaspian Railway.