Stanislav Petrov, Soviet soldier who saved the world from nuclear Armageddon, dies at 77
On September 26, 1983, Petrov convinced his superiors that warnings of incoming US nuclear missiles were a false alarm
A Soviet soldier credited with saving the world from nuclear holocaust has died at age 77.
Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer monitoring an early warning system from a bunker outside Moscow on September 26, 1983, when the radar screen suddenly appeared to depict a missile inbound from the United States.
“All my subordinates were confused, so I started shouting orders at them to avoid panic,” Petrov told the Russian news agency RT in 2010. “I knew my decision would have a lot of consequences.”
The alert siren wailed. A message on the bunker’s main screen reported that four more missiles had been launched, he said. Petrov had 15 minutes to determine whether the threat was real and report to his commanders.
“My cozy armchair felt like a red-hot frying pan and my legs went limp,” he told RT. “I felt like I couldn’t even stand up. That’s how nervous I was.”
I felt like I couldn’t even stand up. That’s how nervous I was
The incident occurred at a time of high tension between the countries. Less than a month earlier, the Russian military had shot down a Korean Air Lines flight that had deviated from its flight plan and flown over Russian airspace. The Berlin Wall would not come down for six more years.