Stanislav Petrov, the man who saved the World
The fate of the planet was one day in the hands of a Russian military man. His cold blood saved millions of lives. This is his story
By EPPUR SI MUOVE
The end of the world had a date marked: the dawn of September 25, 1983
More than 33 years have passed since this hypothetical apocalypse that would have been real if a man had not known how to remain calm.
That subject was Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Army during the Cold War. A military man currently retired and recognized by institutions such as the United Nations as a world hero.
His merit: he knew that he did not have to do anything when what he had to do was do something. The tension was maximum.
Twenty-four days earlier, Korean Air Flight 007 had been shot down after mistakenly entering Soviet airspace. The result was 269 deaths, including several American citizens, including Senator Larry McDonald. Any minor accident could spark a conflict of unknown proportions. That set happened and was not at all irrelevant.
The Autumn Equinox Incident
That morning Petrov was the duty officer in the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow. His responsibilities were observing the satellite early warning network known as Oko (eye in Russian), as well as notifying his superiors of any indication of an imminent nuclear attack by the United States.
In the event that this occurred, the strategy of the Soviet Union was to carry out an immediate counterattack, according to the so-called doctrine of mutually assured destruction.
If he had reported to the upper echelon of the chain of command, no one would have questioned the counterattack
Dawn was breaking in Moscow when the alarms went off. The computers indicated that an American missile had been launched and the level of certainty of the information was, according to the system itself, the highest: “The siren howled, but I sat there for a few seconds, staring at the big red screen with the word ‘launch’ written on it ”, says Petrov in an interview with the ‘BBC’. Given the seriousness of the signal, the soldier made the first right decision in his approach to doing nothing: he did not inform his superiors of what was happening. Such a resolution meant completely skipping the rules corresponding to his position. The cool head of Petrov determined that what he was living in that bunker should be necessarily a false alarm: “ It had all the data. If he had informed the upper echelon of the chain of command, no one would have contested him ”.
Petrov knew that the Americans could not have an effective defense system. A counterattack would mean the immediate annihilation of its population
A minute later, the siren sounded again warning that a second missile had been fired, later a third, then a fourth and even a fifth. Petrov says that there was no rule about how long to wait to report an attack. However, he acknowledges that his successful movements had a lot to do with fear: “It would have been enough for me to pick up the phone to have a direct line with my superiors, but I couldn’t even move. It was as if he was sitting on a red-hot frying pan. “
The lieutenant colonel chose, however, to move down the command ladder rather than up, and contacted other defense bases to obtain more information. They did not report any missile signals, but these services were auxiliary. The protocol stated very clearly that decisions had to be made according to the readings provided by the bunker computers.
The final decision fell on him: “There were about 28 or 29 levels of security. After the target was identified it had to pass all those checkpoints. “ Petrov knew that the Americans could not yet have an effective defense system against a Soviet nuclear counterattack. An action like the one that was taking place would mean the immediate annihilation of its population. It was impossible for anyone to have made such a conscious determination and furthermore “no one would start a nuclear war with only five missiles .”
Petrov emphasizes that if something helped him make his decisions it was the fact that he had received a civil education
Rather than signal the alarm, Petrov made a very different decision: He picked up the phone to report that the security system was not working properly. If the military man was wrong, the first nuclear explosions would happen in a very short time: “Twenty-three minutes later I realized that nothing had happened. If there had been a real attack, I would have known by now. It was a relief”.
This man highlights that if something helped him make his decisions it was the fact that he had received a civil education: “My companions were all professional soldiers and had been trained to give and receive orders .” Petrov believes that if someone else had been in the bunker the order would have been escalated: “I don’t consider myself a hero; just an officer who conscientiously fulfilled his duty at a time of great danger to humanity. I was just the right person, in the right place and at the right time. “
Years of silence
After the event, the hero of the autumn equinox incident was subjected to intense questioning. Initially praised for his decision, the lieutenant colonel was later relegated to a lower position for contempt, this historical error also being hidden for years by the government of the USSR.
In a world full of misery, egos, greed and ambition, this man’s humility and disregard for fame shudder
The incident did not come to light until the 1990s, when the memoirs of General Yury Votintsev, then commander of the missile defense forces, were published. Recognition for the feat did not come to Petrov until 2004 when he was awarded the World Citizen Award. Two years later he would be honored at the United Nations. Almost all the money from the awards received has been distributed among their families. The lieutenant colonel lives today in a small apartment on the outskirts of Moscow with a pension of just over $ 200, in relative anonymity.
Douglas Mattern, President of the World Peace Organization, who came to visit him in 1998 after learning about Votintsev’s story, declares: “In a world so full of vain people who ‘pretend’ to save something when in reality all they do is harm to others and to the planet. In a world so full of miseries, pettiness, egos, greed, and ambitions, the humility of this man and his disregard for fame and importance are deeply shaking. Investigations after the incident revealed that the false alarms were caused by a strange alignment of the sun above the high altitude clouds and the orbits of the satellites. The error is corrected in the most modern security systems. Thirty-three years ago Petrov sensed that technology could fail, trusted his intelligence and instinct, and made the most difficult decision: to do nothing. Perhaps for this reason we can tell this story today.
EPPUR SI MUOVE
