Stanislav Petrov - Dissident Comrade
10 Dissidents Who Changed the World: #2
Stanislav Petrov is not a household name. And yet, hundreds of millions of people may owe him their lives. Not only is it likely that Petrov prevented the start of World War III, but it’s also likely that he prevented nuclear Armageddon and the destruction of much of the Earth.
Petrov’s Career
Petrov was born in 1939, the son of a Soviet air force pilot. He earned top honors in school before joining the army and the Communist Party, and trained as a military engineer in Kiev.
More of a techie than a military type, in the 1970s Petrov got a job working on the Soviets’ first satellite early warning system — a very important, and secret, post.
The Night the World Almost Blew Up
By September 26, 1983, the Cold War between the USSR and the United States had reached its peak, and tensions were high.
On that night, Petrov was stationed at the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow. His job was to observe the satellite early warning network for a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union. In the event of such an attack, the Soviet strategy was to launch an all-out counter-attack as soon as possible — before their own missile silos were obliterated.
Forty minutes past midnight, Moscow time, the alarms in the bunker went off. The computers interpreting data from a new satellite array known as Oko (The Eye) signaled an incoming missile.
Stanislav knew that the U.S. was unlikely to launch a single missile.
But shortly, the system reported another missile. And then another. In all, the system reported 5 Minuteman II nuclear missiles heading from the United States toward Moscow.
Nuclear Counter-Attack Procedures
Inside the bunker, 80 technicians and 40 military officers waited for Petrov to start the official procedure for just such an event: call his superiors and let them know they needed to order a counter-attack.
Petrov needed to act fast, too. Because the Soviet Union’s land radar could not detect missiles beyond the horizon, by the time the missiles could be confirmed it would be too late to set in motion a counter-attack.
So, if the missiles were real and Petrov didn’t respond, Russia was radioactive toast. And if the missiles weren’t real (and the system had been faulty before…) and Petrov informed his superiors, then Soviet missiles might obliterate the U.S., and the U.S. counter-attack might still obliterate the USSR.
While electronic maps and consoles flashed, another officer shouted at Petrov to remain calm and do his job.
But Petrov had a funny feeling in his gut. He’d often been told that a U.S. attack would be many times more massive than just five missiles. So, Petrov followed his intuition, resisted the official procedure, and told his superiors on the phone that the system’s warning was a false alarm.
After a long fifteen-minute wait, Petrov’s gut feeling proved to be correct.
Petrov Leaves the Military
After the ordeal, Petrov underwent intense questioning from his superiors who wanted to know why he hadn’t followed procedures. He was given a reprimand for not logging the night’s events in the correct format, and was reassigned to a less sensitive post.
In 1984, Petrov left the military. He moved to a technical division that worked on satellites, and then retired in 1993 to take care of his wife, who eventually died of a brain tumor.
Epilogue
The events of September 26, 1983, remained largely unknown until the former commander of the Soviet Air Defense’s Missile Defense Units, General Yury Votintsev, published his memoirs in the early 1990s.
In May 2004, the Association of World Citizens awarded Petrov its World Citizen Award, along with $1000.
In January 2006, the association honored Petrov with a second special World Citizen Award, presented at the United Nations in New York City. The following day, Petrov was interviewed by journalist Walter Cronkite.
Today, Petrov lives on a small pension in a small apartment in a Moscow suburb with his dog, Jack.
Go to the next article in this series:
Jesus of Nazareth - Dissident Teacher.
Go to the previous article in this series:
John Lennon - Dissident Beatle.
Go to the series index:
10 Dissidents Who Changed the World.
Read More: Stanislav Petrov, dissident, nuclear war
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