At least ostensibly, World War I ended first with the cessation of armed hostilities between the warring powers at the famed “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” that is November 11, 1918. The official, or diplomatic, end of World War I came later at the Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919.
Conflict Rages on in Russia
Germany had facilitated the return of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionary leader, to Russia to foment civil unrest and knock Russia out of World War I. However, the conflicts that remained unresolved with the 1918 armistice or the 1919 treaty meant that World War I did not end until some time later. The political and ideological upheaval that gripped Russia for at least a decade prior to World War I did not cease when the new Bolshevik government of that nation made a separate peace with Germany, signing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, and exiting the war.
