The status of Narva was finally resolved in a July 1917 referendum, when the district population, now roughly equally divided between ethnic Russians and Estonians, voted to attach itself to the newly autonomous and soon to be independent republic of Estonia. Narva became part of an independent Estonia in 1918, at the end of World War I. The town saw fighting during the Estonian War of Independence. The war started in Narva on 28 November 1918; on the next day the city was captured by the Red Army. Russia retained control of the city until 19 January 1919.