Day of Remembrance of soldiers-internationalists is celebrated annually on February, 15. It is dedicated to soldiers who performed the international duty outside the borders of the motherland. On December 25, 1979, the Soviet troops crossed the border of Afghanistan, and after a long nine years, one month and nineteen days, on February 15, 1989, the commander of the 40th Army, General Gromov withdrew his soldiers. During this time: 22,269 of the Kazakhs participated in the war, 924 of them were killed, 1015 were disabled, 21 people were missed. This is the result of rendering "the fraternal internationalist assistance" to Afghanistan. In different countries, it is known by different names, but the basis is the same. This date was chosen because on this day in 1989, the last column of the Soviet troops left Afghanistan. The war in Afganistan, which lasted nearly a decade and took the lives of more than fifteen thousand citizens of the Soviet Union, was over when the last soldier left the bridge on the border river Amudarya near Termez.