‘Last’ Soviet Soldier to Leave Afghanistan Reprises His Role

TERMEZ, Soviet Union —  The “last” Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan was actually out of the country by Feb. 14 but went back in just to make his dramatic walk across the bridge.

“Actually, I slept here last night,” Lt. Gen. Boris Gromov, commander of Soviet forces in Afghanistan, told a reporter Wednesday at his Termez hotel. “I went back over the other side this morning for the final pullout.”

Gromov also found that the room he had occupied Tuesday night at the Torkhan hotel had gone to someone else.

“You can’t do this to me,” he told the receptionist with a grin. “I’ve just become the last Soviet soldier out of Afghanistan.”

The history of the moment, the end of the nine-year intervention that left 15,000 Soviet dead and kept East-West relations in cold storage, seemed lost on the woman.

But the 45-year-old general, who for the last two years had commanded the 115,000-strong Soviet force in Afghanistan, won the day.

“Of course we can find another room--for you,” she said, a slight blush spreading across her face.