Boris Vsevolodovich Gromov
Борис Всеволодович Громов
The last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan, the face of the Soviet withdrawal
On 15 February 1989, standing on the Friendship Bridge, he told a Soviet TV reporter: "There is not a single Soviet soldier left behind me."
A Soviet general who served three tours in the Soviet–Afghan War and, as the last commander of the 40th Army (1987–1989), directed the Soviet withdrawal. He was made a Hero of the Soviet Union in 1988 for Operation Magistral, which lifted the siege of Khost. On 15 February 1989 he crossed the Friendship Bridge on foot, the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan, the symbolic end of the nine-year war. He went on to command the Kyiv Military District, served as First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and as Deputy Minister of Defence of Russia. In 1991 he ran for vice-president alongside Nikolai Ryzhkov. In the post-Soviet era he served twelve years as governor of Moscow Oblast, embodying the political transition of the Soviet military elite.
Career timeline
- 1965–1969Motorized rifle platoon and company commander, Baltic Military District
- 1972–1978Battalion commander → regiment commander → chief of staff, 9th Motorized Rifle Division, North Caucasus MD
- 1980–1982Commander, 5th Guards Motorized Rifle Division, 40th Army, Afghanistan (first tour)
- 1984First Deputy Commander, 38th Army, Carpathian Military District
- 1985–1986General Staff representative, Afghanistan (second tour)
- 1986–1987Commander, 28th Army, Belorussian Military District
- 1987–1989Commander, 40th Army, Afghanistan (third tour) — directed the Soviet withdrawal
- 1989Commander, Kyiv Military District
- 1990–1991First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, USSR
- 1991Vice-presidential candidate, Russian presidential election (running with Nikolai Ryzhkov)
- 1991–1992First Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces
- 1992–1995Deputy Minister of Defence, Russian Federation
- 2000–2012Governor of Moscow Oblast (three terms)