September 26, 1983 Stanislav Petrov. Prevented the launch of Soviet missiles at the United States: the "nuclear" story of officer Petrov. One of his colleagues came to visit him.

MOSCOW, September 21 - RIA Novosti. Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who recognized on September 26, 1983, an erroneous signal about an American missile nuclear strike and prevented the launch of missiles at targets in the United States, instead of being encouraged, he received a scolding from his superiors and was forced to quit his job. military service, Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

Officer Petrov received the Dresden Prize for the Prevention of War"The feat of Stanislav Petrov will go down in history as one of the greatest deeds for peace in recent decades," said Heidrun Hannusch, chairman of Friends of Dresden in Germany.

Sun beam like a rocket

Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov was born on September 7, 1939 in Vladivostok. Graduated from the Kiev Higher Engineering Radio Engineering School. In 1972 he was sent to serve at the Serpukhov-15 command post near Moscow. His duties included monitoring the proper functioning of the spacecraft of the missile attack warning system.

On the night of September 26, 1983, he was at the post of operational duty officer of the system. On the computer of the information processing center from the satellite appeared a message with a high degree of certainty about the launch of five nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles from the United States.

"Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who was on duty at the time, was in a state where the fate of the whole world could depend on the decision of one person, if he made a decision that was laid down according to the rules. He had to notify his command, then the Soviet leadership was notified and the retaliatory strike system was activated ", Myagkov said, noting that, having engineering knowledge and an analytical mind, Petrov was able to calculate that the Americans launched a missile from one point - this could not happen in the event of a massive strike.

"He began to doubt, and eventually accepted correct solution that this is a system error. As it turned out later, Sun rays, reflecting from the clouds, the Soviet detection sensors lit up," the scientific director of the RVIO specified.

The interlocutor of the agency noted that the commanders of the lieutenant colonel did not appreciate his contribution to the strengthening of peace.

"Stanislav Petrov then received a scolding from his superiors, was forced to quit, was in the hospital. And international awards found it later. But this, indeed, is that unique case when we were on the verge of a catastrophe due to a mistake made by technology, but it was the human factor that could save us, our country, and the whole world from a nuclear catastrophe," Myagkov said.

Awarded abroad

Because of the secrecy regime, Petrov's act became known only in 1993. In 2006, at the UN Headquarters in New York, he received an award public organization"Association of World Citizens" engraved "To the man who prevented nuclear war". In 2012, in Baden-Baden, Germany, Petrov was awarded the German Media Prize. In 2013, in Germany, he was awarded the Dresden Prize for the Prevention of Conflicts and Violence."

Petrov died on May 19, 2017 in the Moscow region, which became known only in September 2017.

The USSR was forced to respond

Myagkov believes that there would certainly not have been such a fierce confrontation, and such risks, if the United States had not pursued a policy of drawing the Soviet Union into an arms race, had not aggravated conflicts related to nuclear weapons to the limit.

"Soviet Union was forced to respond," he stressed, adding that the "cold war" was a confrontation between two blocs, Soviet and Western, which used all resources to acquire geopolitical, ideological and economic superiority in the world.

"In my opinion, the results of the Second World War were the source of the Cold War. The United States bears the main responsibility here, because it was they who became the first owners nuclear weapons, used it in Japan and from the end of 1945 developed a plan for delivering a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. Of course, the nuclear factor was in the Cold War key role", - said Myagkov.

According to him, by the beginning of the 1960s, the USSR had an order of magnitude fewer nuclear warheads and was at a disadvantage, which prompted the Soviet leadership to take tough economic measures in order to increase its military, primarily nuclear potential.

“Nevertheless, during the Cold War years, there were a number of crises that we are now studying and drawing conclusions in order to prevent such a confrontation from happening again, when the world was on the verge of a nuclear catastrophe and could turn into ashes. This is the period of the Korean War, when the United States prevailed above us in terms of the number of nuclear weapons, this is the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when before the war it was literally necessary to lend a hand. In both cases, a large share of the responsibility lies with the United States, "said the scientific director of the RVIO.

Lesson for America

According to Myagkov, "the Americans should draw conclusions from this situation."

"After all, both the USSR at that time and today's Russia are ready to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike in the event of an attack. Let's ask ourselves the question, could there be such people (like Lieutenant Colonel Petrov - ed.) in American headquarters and in American points of technical detection of missiles? This is also an important lesson not only for us, but also for them," the source said.

Answering a question about the possibility of perpetuating the memory of Petrov in Russia, he said that "the Russian Military Historical Society is ready to consider such an initiative."

In the next few minutes, five more rockets appeared on the computer screen. At this time, the Cold War was at its peak - three and a half weeks before that, a South Korean Boeing 747 had been shot down.

According to the instructions, in the event of a missile attack, the duty officer was obliged to immediately notify the country's leadership, which made the decision to retaliate. The flight time of a ballistic missile from the continental United States to the USSR was about 30 minutes, so Petrov had a very meager choice: either report to the Secretary General, who would have to accept final decision, using your nuclear suitcase, or report to the authorities: "We are giving out false information" and be responsible for the consequences yourself. Given that Andropov had only 15 minutes to make a decision, it is safe to say that he would have believed Petrov and pressed the button for a retaliatory nuclear strike. But Petrov did not take responsibility for billions of human lives and did not act according to instructions - he did not press the button, despite the fact that all 30 tests gave a positive result.

Guided by common sense (they say, 5 missiles are too few for the first strike in the war), Petrov decided that the computer had malfunctioned. As a result, this brave man turned out to be right: there was indeed a failure in the warning system. After a year-long secret investigation into the incident on September 26, 1983, it was concluded that the readings of the system, which then shocked Petrov and his shift on duty, were caused by a rare but predictable signal reflection effect from the Earth's surface. The reason was the illumination of the satellite sensors by sunlight reflected from high-altitude clouds. Later, changes were made to the space system to eliminate such situations.

True, the system failed again in 1995, when the Russians for a short time mistook a scientific missile launched from Norwegian territory for an incoming American nuclear missile. There were cases when launches of meteorological satellites, the rising of the full moon, flocks of geese were mistaken for a missile attack. They intended to solve the problem of failures in the warning system by deploying a joint central control center for early warning systems in Moscow, but they did not manage to build it.

Now the United States and Russia still have thousands of nuclear missiles on full alert aimed at big cities each other. Therefore, there is a possibility that similar false alarms may recur. And this can provoke a real retaliatory strike.

In January 2006, the international public organization "Association of World Citizens" for the Prevention of Nuclear War presented retired colonel Stanislav Petrov with its prize - a statuette "Hand holding the globe."

If there had been another person in the place of Stanislav Petrov, we might no longer exist.
It is not hard to state, but now Stanislav Petrov lives in a tiny apartment, almost unsociable. He tries not to remember that incident ... Maybe the consequences of those checks affected ...

Last updated 09/14/2018

Making a choice and being responsible for it is never easy. Even when we are talking only about my own life. It is even more difficult to choose if the fate of people depends on this decision.

Life on a string

September 26, 1983 lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov had to decide the fate of billions of human lives. Moreover, to decide in conditions when only a few seconds remained for reflection.

In the fall of 1983, the world seemed to have gone mad. American President Ronald Reagan obsessed with the idea crusade” against the Soviet Union, brought the heat of hysteria in the West to the limit. Contributed to this and the incident with the South Korean "Boeing", shot down on Far East September 1.

After that, in the United States and other countries, the hottest heads in all seriousness called for "revenge" on the USSR, including with the use of nuclear weapons.

The Soviet Union was headed by that time a seriously ill Yuri Andropov, and in general, the composition of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU was not distinguished by youth and health. However, there was no one who wanted to give the descent to the adversary and give in to him. And in general, in Soviet society, American pressure was perceived extremely negatively. A country that has survived the Great Patriotic War is generally difficult to scare with anything.

At the same time, anxiety was in the air. It seemed that everything was really hanging by a thin thread.

Military Dynasty Analyst

At that time, in the closed military town of Serpukhov-15, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty at the command post of the space-based missile attack warning system.

In the Petrov family, three generations of men were military men, and Stanislav continued the dynasty. After graduating from the Kiev Higher Engineering Radio Engineering School in 1972, he arrived in 1972 to serve in Serpukhov-15.

Petrov was responsible for the proper functioning of the satellites that were part of the missile attack warning system. The work is hard, calls to services occurred at night, and on weekends, and on holidays - any problems had to be eliminated promptly.

Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was the chief analyst in Serpukhov-15, and not a full-time duty officer at the command post. However, about twice a month, analysts also took a place at the desk on duty.

And the situation when it was necessary to decide the fate of the world fell precisely on the duty of Stanislav Petrov.

A random person could not become a duty officer at such an object. The training lasted up to two years, despite the fact that all officers already had higher military education. Each time, the attendants received a detailed briefing.

However, everyone already understood what they were responsible for. Minesweeper is wrong only once - the old truth. But the sapper risks only himself, and the error of the person on duty at such an object can cost the lives of hundreds of millions and billions of people.

Stanislav Petrov. year 2013. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

phantom attack

On the night of September 26, 1983, the missile attack warning system dispassionately recorded the launch of a combat missile from one of the American bases. In the shift room in Serpukhov-15, sirens howled. All eyes turned to Lieutenant Colonel Petrov.

He acted in strict accordance with the instructions - he checked the functioning of all systems. Everything turned out to be in good condition, and the computer persistently pointed to the “deuce” - this is the code for the highest probability that a missile attack on the USSR was actually happening.

Moreover, the system recorded several more launches from the same missile base. According to all computer data, the United States of America started a nuclear war against the Soviet Union.

Despite all the preparation, Stanislav Petrov himself later admitted that he was in deep shock. The legs were wadded.

According to the instructions, then the lieutenant colonel was supposed to report on the US attack to the head of state, Yuri Andropov. After that, the Soviet leader would have 10-12 minutes left to make a decision and give the command to retaliate. And then both countries will disappear in the flames of nuclear fires.

At the same time, Andropov's decision would be based precisely on the information of the military, and the likelihood that a strike on the United States would be delivered is extremely high.

It is not known how the full-time duty officer would have behaved, but the chief analyst Petrov, who had worked with the system for many years, allowed himself not to believe her. Years later, he said that he proceeded from the postulate that a computer, by definition, is a fool. The probability that the system was wrong was supported by another purely practical consideration - it is extremely doubtful that the United States, having started a war against the USSR, would have struck from only one base. And there were no launches from other American bases.

As a result, Petrov decided to consider the signal of a nuclear attack false. About which he informed all the services by phone. True, there was only special communications in the duty officer's room, and Petrov sent his assistant to the next room to call on a regular phone.

I sent it simply because the lieutenant colonel's own legs did not obey.

Stanislav Petrov Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The fate of mankind and the blank journal

What it was like to survive the next few tens of minutes, only Stanislav Petrov knows. And what if he was wrong, and nuclear charges now begin to explode in Soviet cities?

But there were no explosions. Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was not mistaken. The world, without knowing it, received the right to life from the hands of a Soviet officer.

As it turned out later, the cause of the false alarm was a flaw in the system itself, namely, the illumination of the sensors of the satellite included in the system with sunlight reflected from high-altitude clouds. The shortcoming was eliminated, and the missile attack warning system successfully continued its work.

And immediately after the emergency, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov received a stick-in from his superiors - for the fact that during the check he did not have a combat log filled out. Petrov himself logically asked: why? A telephone handset in one hand, a microphone in the other, American missile launches in front of your eyes, a siren in your ears, and you need to decide the fate of mankind in a matter of seconds. And it is impossible to add later, not in real time - a criminally punishable act.

On the other side, General Yuri Votintsev, chief Petrov, can also be understood - the world was brought to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe, should there be someone to blame? Getting to the creators of the system is not so easy, but the duty officer is right next to him. And even if he saved the world, did he not fill out the magazine?!

Stanislav Petrov. 2011. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

It's just that kind of work

However, no one began to punish the lieutenant colonel for this incident. The service continued as usual. But after a while, Stanislav Petrov quit himself - he was simply tired of irregular working hours and endless worries.

He continued to deal with space systems, but already as a civilian specialist.

The world learned about who it owes its life to only 10 years later. Moreover, none other than General Yuri Votintsev, who mercilessly scolded Lieutenant Colonel Petrov for an unfilled magazine, told about this in the Pravda newspaper.

From that moment on, the retired lieutenant colonel, modestly living in the Moscow region, was constantly visited by journalists. Send letters from ordinary people who thanked Petrov for saving the world.

In January 2006, in New York at the UN Headquarters, Stanislav Petrov was presented with a special award from the international public organization Association of World Citizens. It is a crystal figurine "Hand holding the globe" with the inscription "To the man who prevented nuclear war" engraved on it.

In February 2012, in Baden-Baden, Stanislav Petrov was awarded the German Media Prize. In February 2013, the retired lieutenant colonel was awarded the Dresden Prize for the prevention of armed conflict.

Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov himself said about himself in an interview: “I am just an ordinary officer who did his job. It’s bad when you start thinking about yourself more than you’re worth.”

It became known that Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov died back in May 2017 at the age of 77 from congestive pneumonia. His son .

May 19, 2017 at near Moscow Fryazino retired from life Soviet officer Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov, who, on the night of September 25-26, 1983, actually prevented a nuclear war, which could have started due to a false operation of a missile attack warning system. The system reported an attack from the United States. Stanislav Petrov became one of the main characters of the Cold War, books were written about him and even a documentary film was made, he was awarded at the UN headquarters. However, he himself never considered himself a hero. In an interview with reporters "", he said: "Did I save the world? No, what a hero I am!” That incident in September 1983 he called a working episode, which was very difficult, but in which he managed to work well.

Fast forward to 1983. cold war in full swing, a new round of it begins. March 8, speaking to the National Association of Evangelicals USA in Florida, american president Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire". On April 4, in the area of ​​the Lesser Kuril Ridge, 6 American A7 attack aircraft entered the airspace of the USSR to a depth of 2 to 30 kilometers and carried out simulated bombing on the territory of Zelyony Island, making several passes to attack ground targets. On September 1 of the same year, a Soviet fighter-interceptor shot down a South Korean passenger Boeing 747, the aircraft deviated from the usual flight path by 500 kilometers, twice violating the airspace of the USSR.

The cold war could turn into a hot one at any moment, it was in such a situation on the night of September 25-26, 1983 that Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov took up combat duty. He was on duty at the command post of the missile attack warning system in the secret part of Serpukhov-15. For ordinary people here was the Center for the Observation of Celestial Bodies, but in reality no one here observed the heavenly bodies. One of the most secret objects of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union was hiding under the sign of the center. A year earlier, the Oko-1 system, a satellite system for detecting launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, just took up combat duty. This system was part of the space echelon of the missile attack warning system.

At 0:15, at the command post of the missile attack warning system (SPRN) in the secret part of Serpukhov-15, the computer unexpectedly gave out information: an intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the United States - its target was the Soviet Union. As Stanislav Evgrafovich later recalled: "The machine showed that the reliability of the information was the highest." “The siren was screaming like an announced, big red letters START flashed on the screen from above. This means that the ICBM has definitely gone. I looked down at my combat crew. At this time, someone even got up from their seats, they began to turn around at me. I had to raise my voice so that everyone immediately took up their posts again. It was necessary to check the received information. It could not turn out that it was actually a ballistic missile with warheads on board ... ”, Petrov noted.

The existing missile attack warning system made it possible to track other people's launches of ballistic missiles and civilian launch vehicles. The launch was tracked already at the moment the rocket left the mine. All levels of verification confirmed that the missile had been fired. “Actually, what was required of people? The machine gave us all the input, provided the "evidence base", and the duty officer at the command post, according to the instructions, had to report upstairs. The issue of retaliatory launches was already being decided there, ”the officer recalled. However, Stanislav Petrov doubted that in a real attack on the USSR, missiles should have been launched from several bases at once, and not from one, as the system showed.

All the data that was processed by our computer was duplicated to the higher authorities. They were surprised: why is there no confirmation from the shift on duty? A couple of minutes later, a call rang at the command post, they called on government communications. Picking up the phone, I reported to the caller on duty: "I'm giving you false information." The attendant answered shortly: "Understood." Stanislav Petrov is still grateful to this man who did not escalate the situation, did not break down, but communicated with him clearly, without unnecessary questions and spoken phrases. At that moment it was especially important. At this time, the system notified everyone at the CP about the next launch. Now she noted that the second ballistic missile had gone. The letters “START” lit up again. After that, three more messages followed within three minutes and the inscription "START" was replaced by an even more ominous "ROCKET ATTACK".

Minuteman III rocket launch

These moments became one of the most difficult not only in Petrov's officer career, but throughout his life. In a very limited time, he had to analyze a large number of various factors, and then try to make the right decision. Making the wrong decision under these conditions threatened to start a real nuclear war, which could put an end to our entire world. Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov raised all the services available to him to his ears. Visual control specialists who peered into the screens of video control devices - VKU (it is worth noting that the “visualists” were ordinary soldiers) did not see anything. The VKU screens were supposed to display a bright “tail” from the nozzle of a launched rocket. The fact that supposedly launched missiles cannot be detected was also reported by specialists of over-the-horizon radar.

From the moment the enemy launched a ballistic missile to the decision to launch a return launch, the leadership of the USSR had no more than 28 minutes. Personally, Stanislav Petrov had 15 minutes to make the only right decision. He rightly doubted that the United States decided to launch a nuclear strike on the territory of the USSR - he, like all other officers, was instructed that during a real nuclear attack, missiles would be launched from several bases at once (the Americans then had 9 such bases). After analyzing all the information received: the fact that the launches were made from one point, only a few ICBMs took off, and also that the "visualists" did not record any traces of missiles, and the supra-horizontal radar did not detect a target, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov decided that the alarm was false. He reported a false positive of the system up the chain. Later, Colonel-General Yuri Vsevolodovich Votintsev, Commander of the Anti-Missile and Anti-Space Defense Forces, arrived at the command post and reported the false operation of the system to the Commander-in-Chief and Minister of Defense of the country Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov.

An investigation conducted after this incident showed that the cause of the system failure was the exposure of Soviet satellite sensors to sunlight, which was reflected from high-altitude clouds. As Stanislav Petrov later recalled, at first they wanted to encourage him and promised even to present him for an award, but instead they announced a reprimand - for an unfilled combat log. And already in 1984, he retired, never reaching the rank of colonel. Together with his family, he settled in Fryazino, near Moscow, where he received an apartment. Contrary to rumors, this happened for purely personal reasons, Petrov's wife became seriously ill, which is why he decided to quit the service. At the same time, that September incident in Serpukhov-15 remained a state secret until the early 1990s, even the officer’s wife knew nothing about that duty.

It is worth noting that such cases occurred not only in the USSR. According to the data Soviet intelligence, American missile attack early warning systems also malfunctioned and gave false alarms, bringing humanity closer to a monstrous catastrophe. In one case, the Americans even alerted their strategic bombers, which managed to reach North Pole, from where they planned to launch a massive missile attack on the territory of the Soviet Union. In another case, the Americans announced an alarm, mistaking the migration of flocks of birds for Soviet missiles. Fortunately, such cases were recognized in time, so it did not come to the launch of ballistic missiles in response.

Returning to Stanislav Evgrafovich, it can be noted that real fame came to him after they began to write and shoot programs about him in Europe and the USA. For example, in September 1998, Karl Schumacher, an undertaker and political activist from the German town of Oberhausen, read a short article in the Bild newspaper that mentioned a Soviet officer. An article in the Bild newspaper said that a man who managed to prevent a nuclear conflict lives in a small apartment in Fryazino, his wife died of cancer, and his pension is not enough to live on. Schumacher himself told reporters about this "". Karl Schumacher invited Stanislav Petrov to Germany to personally talk about this episode of the Cold War to local residents. Stanislav responded to the proposal and, having arrived in Germany, gave an interview to a local television channel. Several local newspapers also wrote about his arrival.

Thus, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov became known to the whole world. After this trip, all the world's major media wrote about him, including Spiegel, Die Welt, Die Zeit, Radio1, CBS, Daily Mail and Washington Post. Thanks to this, that watch became one of the main symbolic episodes of the Cold War, along with the visit to the Soviet Union in 1983 by the American girl Samantha Smith or the negotiations between US President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985-86. The history of Petrov was described in some detail in the book "Dead Hand" by David Hoffman - one of the world's major works about the Cold War period.

The merits of the Soviet officer were highly appreciated by the world community. On January 19, 2006, in New York, at the UN Headquarters, Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov was presented with a crystal figurine, which depicted a hand holding a globe. The statuette was inscribed: "To the man who prevented a nuclear war." On February 24, 2012, in Baden-Baden, he was presented with the 2011 German Media Prize. And on February 17, 2013, Petrov became a laureate of the Dresden Prize, awarded to people for the prevention of armed conflicts.

In 2014, the documentary-feature film "The Man Who Saved the World" was released. As Stanislav Petrov himself later said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, the actor Kevin Costner, who played one of the main roles in the film, sent him a money transfer in the amount of $ 500 - in gratitude for the fact that he did not lift rockets with nuclear warheads on board . It can be noted that in the world of Petrov, perhaps, was even more famous person than in their home country.

Stanislav Petrov died in his own apartment, where he lived all his life at the age of 77. Not a single media outlet wrote about his death then, it became known only four months later, when old comrades began to call him to congratulate him on his birthday and heard this terrible from his son. As I wrote already in September 2017, "", the man who saved the world died alone. It happened quietly and unnoticed by the world he saved. They buried him in the same way: in the distant grave of an ordinary city cemetery, without a farewell salute and the sounds of a military orchestra.

Released in 2014, the film The man who saved the world, directed by Denmark, Peter Anthony, with the participation of Hollywood stars: Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, told the world community about the events in Russia on the night of September 26, 1983. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, the operational duty officer of Serpukhov-15, a command post a hundred kilometers from Moscow, made a decision on which the preservation of peace on Earth largely depended. What happened that night, and what does it mean for humanity?

cold war

The USSR and the USA, two superpowers, after the end of World War II became rivals in the struggle for influence in the post-war world. The irresolvable contradictions between the two models of social structure and their ideology, the ambitions of the leaders of the victorious countries and the absence of a real enemy led to a long confrontation that went down in history as the Cold War. Throughout the time, countries found themselves in close proximity to the outbreak of the Third World War.

It was possible to overcome 1962 only as a result of the political will and efforts of the presidents of the two countries: Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy, shown during personal negotiations. The Cold War was accompanied by an unprecedented arms race, in which the Soviet Union began to lose by the early 1980s.

Stanislav Petrov, who by 1983 had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Air Defense Ministry of the USSR, found the situation of a new round of confrontation between the great powers due to the involvement of the USSR in the war in Afghanistan. United States ballistic missiles are located in European countries, to which the Soviet Union immediately withdraws from the Geneva disarmament talks.

Downed Boeing 747

Ronald Reagan (USA) and Yuri Andropov (November 1982 - February 1984) in power brought relations between the two countries to the highest point of confrontation since the Caribbean crisis. Oil was added to the fire by the situation with the downed September 1, 1983 South Korean airliner, performing a passenger flight to New York. Deviated from the route by 500 kilometers, the Boeing was shot down over the territory of the USSR by the Su-15 interceptor of Captain Gennady Osipovich. A ballistic missile test was expected that day, which could have led to a tragic mix-up that resulted in the airliner with 269 people on board being mistaken for a reconnaissance aircraft.

Be that as it may, it is hard to believe that the decision to destroy the target was made at the level of the commander in chief of the Air Force and Air Defense. There was a real commotion in the Kremlin, because US presidential candidate Larry MacDonald was on board the downed liner. Only on September 7, the USSR admitted responsibility for the death of a passenger plane. An ICAO investigation confirmed the fact that the aircraft had deviated from the route, but no evidence of preventive actions by the Soviet Air Force has been found so far.

Needless to say that international relationships were extremely spoiled at the moment when Stanislav Petrov once again stood up for duty. 1983 is the year when the SPRN (missile attack warning system) of the USSR was in a state of constant combat readiness.

Night duty

A detailed description of the events with the downed Boeing is best able to illustrate: in the event of unforeseen circumstances, it is unlikely that General Secretary Andropov's hand would have trembled, pressing the trigger for a retaliatory strike in the event of an enemy nuclear attack.

Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, born in 1939, being an analytical engineer, took up another duty at the Serpukhov-15 checkpoint, where missile launches were controlled. On the night of September 26, the country slept peacefully, for nothing foreshadowed danger. At 0:15 am, the early warning siren blared loudly, highlighting the frightening word "Start" on the banner. Behind him appeared: "The first rocket has launched, the reliability is the highest." It was about a nuclear strike from one of the American bases. There is no time limit for how long a commander should think, but what happened in his head during the next moments is scary to think about. For according to the protocol, he was immediately obliged to report on the launch of a nuclear missile by the enemy.

There is no confirmation of the visual channel, and the analytical mind of the officer began to work out a version of the computer system's error. Having created more than one machine himself, he was aware that anything is possible, despite 30 levels of verification. He is told that a system error has been ruled out, but he does not believe in the logic of launching a single rocket. And at his own peril and risk, he picks up the phone to report to his superiors: "False information." Regardless of the instructions, the officer takes responsibility. Since then, for the whole world, Stanislav Petrov is the man who prevented world war.

The danger has passed

Today, a retired lieutenant colonel living in the city of Fryazino near Moscow is asked many questions, one of which is always about how much he believed in his own decision and when he realized that the worst was over. Stanislav Petrov answers honestly: "The chances were fifty-fifty." The most serious test is the minute-by-minute repetition of the early warning signal that announced the launch of another missile. There were five in total. But he stubbornly waited for information from the visual channel, and the radars could not detect thermal radiation. Never before has the world been as close to disaster as in 1983. The events of the terrible night showed how important the human factor is: one wrong decision, and everything can turn into dust.

Only after 23 minutes, the lieutenant colonel was able to exhale freely, having received confirmation of the correctness of the decision. Today, one question torments him himself: "What would happen if that night he did not replace his sick partner and in his place was not an engineer, but a military commander who was used to obeying instructions?"

After the night incident

The next morning, commissions began to work at the CP. After a while, the reason for the false alarm of early warning sensors will be found: the optics reacted to sunlight reflected by clouds. A huge number of scientists, including honored academicians, developed computer system. To admit that Stanislav Petrov did the right thing and showed heroism means to cancel the work of a whole team of the country's best minds, demanding punishment for poor-quality work. Therefore, at first the officer was promised a reward, and then they changed their minds. They realized that by starting to think and make decisions, he violated the charter. Instead of a reward, a scolding followed.

The lieutenant colonel had to justify himself to the air defense commander Yu. Votintsev for an unfilled combat log. No one wanted to admit the stress experienced by the operational duty officer, who in a few moments realized the fragility of the world.

Dismissal from the army

Stanislav Petrov, the man who prevented a world war, decided to leave the army by resigning. After spending several months in hospitals, he settled in a small apartment received from the military department in Fryazino near Moscow, having received a telephone without waiting in line. The decision was difficult, but the main reason was the illness of his wife, who passed away a few years later, leaving her son and daughter to her husband. It was a difficult period in my life former officer fully aware of what loneliness is.

In the nineties, the former commander of anti-missile and anti-space defense, Yuri Votintsev, the case at the Serpukhov-15 command post was declassified and made public, which made Lieutenant Colonel Petrov a famous person not only in his homeland, but also abroad.

Recognition in the West

The very situation in which a soldier in the Soviet Union did not believe the system, influencing the further development of events, plunged the Western world into shock. The "Association of Citizens of the World" at the United Nations decided to reward the hero. In January 2006, Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov was awarded an award - a crystal figurine: "The man who prevented a nuclear war." In 2012, the German media gave him an award, and two years later, the organizing committee in Dresden awarded 25,000 euros for the prevention of armed conflict.

During the presentation of the first award, the Americans began to initiate the creation of a documentary film about a Soviet officer. Starring Stanislav Petrov himself. The process dragged on for many years due to lack of funds. The picture was released in 2014, causing a mixed reaction in the country.

American PR

Official version Russian state events of 1983 was expressed in the documents submitted to the UN. It follows from them that the SA lieutenant colonel alone did not save the world. For KP "Serpukhov -15" is not the only object exercising control over the launch of missiles.

The forums are discussing the events of 1983, where professionals express their opinion about a kind of PR, inflated by the Americans to take control of the entire nuclear potential of the country. Many question the awards presented, in their opinion, to Petrov Stanislav Evgrafovich, absolutely undeservedly.

But there are those who consider the actions of Lieutenant Colonel Petrov to be invaluable by their own country.

Quoted by Kevin Costner

In the 2014 film, a Hollywood star meets the main character and is so imbued with his fate that he makes a speech to the film crew, which cannot leave anyone indifferent. He admitted that he only plays those who are better and stronger than him, but the real heroes are people like Lieutenant Colonel Petrov, who made a decision that affected the life of every person around the world. By choosing not to fire missiles back at the United States in response to the system's message about the attack, he saved the lives of many people, now forever bound by this decision.