Stanislov Petrov was born on September 7, 1939. His father had been a fighter pilot and his mother was a nurse. Naturally, he went into the military. On Sept. 26, 1983, he was on duty in a bunker near Moscow. Lt. Col. Petrov was in charge of the nuclear warning system called Oko. Suddenly an alarm blared. The system had picked up an American nuclear missile on its way and soon after another four missiles. Protocol called for Petrov to pass the alarm up the chain of command. This very likely would have resulted in a Soviet counterstrike because both countries believed in Mutually Assured Destruction. This strategy was for the superpowers to retaliate to any attack by launching a bunch of missiles. The policy was so horrific that it kept the U.S. and Soviet Union from destroying themselves.
1983 was a particularly tense year for several reasons. On September 26, a Korean airliner was shot down by a Soviet fighter because it flew over Soviet territory. 269 people were killed and relations became much chillier. Pres. Reagan used the incident to up the anti-communist rhetoric. The US plan to install nuclear Pershing missiles in Western Europe was provocative. And the US was sending bombers on flights to the Soviet Union and then the bombers would turn away before they reached the border. Soviet leader Yuri Andropov was paranoid about an American first strike. Had he gotten notice of an attack, he most likely would have launched hundreds of nuclear missiles. And the US would have fired hundreds of missiles before they could be destroyed on the ground.
So, why did Petrov stop nuclear annihilation? His gut told him the missiles detected by the new and not well-tested Oko system was probably a false alarm. His reasoning was his belief that the US would not just launch 5 missiles. What would be the point to that? He waited as the 20 minutes of flight time passed with no missiles reaching Russia. He was right about the false alarm, although he had violated procedure. Considering what the Soviets did to soldiers who disobeyed orders, he was one brave human. And all the other humans should appreciate him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident
https://www.historyextra.com/period/cold-war/stanislav-petrov-soviet-soldier-saved-the-world/
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