The outbreak of the First World War gave Finland a window of opportunity to achieve independence. The Finns sought aid from both the German Empire and the Bolsheviks to that end, and on 6 December 1917, the Finnish Senate declared the country's independence. The new Bolshevik government was weak in Russia, and soon the, Russian Civil War would break out. The Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin could spare no troops or attention for Finland and so Soviet Russia recognised the new Finnish government just three weeks after it had declared its independence. In 1918, the Finns fought a short civil war in which the Bolshevik Red Guards were armed by 7,000 to 10,000 Russian troops stationed in Finland.