In 1983, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were as strained as they had been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The USSR, in fact, was convinced that the US was planning a first strike nuclear attack. On September 1st, 1983, the USSR shot down a Korean Air Lines flight that strayed into Soviet airspace, thinking it might be part of a sneak attack by the US.
On September 26th, 1983, Stanislov Petrov was the colonel in charge of monitoring the Soviet nuclear early warning system. Suddenly, the satellites warned of a single nuclear missile launched by the US against the USSR. Petrov knew that Soviet doctrine would trigger a massive retaliatory strike if ANY nuclear missile was launched by the US. He determined that the satellite system, which had been glitchy, was malfunctioning. No missile arrived. Minutes later, the system detected four more missiles incoming. Again, Petrov refused to report the incident, determining on his own that the system was malfunctioning.
On September 26, 1983, Stanislov Petrov's discretion, judgment and bravery prevented the entire world from being engulfed in a nuclear holocaust. Because his actions proved the inferiority of Soviet satellite technology, he was never acknowledged or rewarded by the Soviet Union, though after the collapse of the USSR he was acknowledged and rewarded by international organizations including the United Nations.
You are alive today because Stanislov Petrov used his judgment, critical thinking and discretion not to report a false missile attack. He died in 2017, but maybe spare a thought for the man today, on what would have been his 81st birthday.
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