The man who saved the world...

[Laurent]

Not directly related to soviet medals, but still a very intersting article!

Retired Russian colonel Stanislav Petrov received a special World Citizen Award at a UN meeting in New York on Thursday. Petrov was honored as the “Man Who Averted Nuclear War”.

In a meeting held at the UN’s Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium on Jan. 19, the Association of World Citizens (AWC) presented the retired officer with his award.

The inscription on the award, which has a granite base with a solid glass hand holding the earth, read: “The single hand that holds the earth symbolizes your heroic deed on September 26, 1983 that earned you the title: The Man Who Averted Nuclear War.” The back of the award read: “May the hand now symbolize humanity united to save our world by eliminating nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.”

Back in 1983 Petrov made a decision that prevented a war that could have destroyed the planet. He was the duty officer at Russia’s main nuclear command center in September 1983 when the system indicated a nuclear missile attack was launched by the U.S. on Russia.

It was just after midnight, Sept. 26, and 120 staff were working the graveyard shift in Serpukhov-15, the secret USSR command bunker hidden in a forest 30 miles northeast of Moscow, WorldNetDaily reported.

In the commander’s chair was Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, 44, looking down from his mezzanine desk to the gymnasium-sized main floor filled with military officers and technicians charged with monitoring any U.S. missiles and retaliating instantly.

Petrov was highly aware that Cold War tensions were acute, as USSR fighters had shot down a Korean airliner on Sept. 1. But he was completely shocked when the warning siren began to wail and two lights on his desk console began flashing MISSILE ATTACK and START. “Start” was the instruction to launch, irreversibly, all 5,000 or so Soviet missiles and obliterate America.

A new, unproven Soviet satellite system had picked up a flash in Montana near a Minuteman II silo. Then another — five, all told.

Petrov recalls his legs were “like cotton,” as they say in Russian. He stared at the huge electronic wall map of the United States in terror and disbelief. As his staff gawked upward at him from the floor, he had the thought, “Who would order an attack with only five missiles? That big an idiot has not been born yet, not even in the U.S.”

The Soviet procedure manual was inflexible, and it demanded he notify his superiors of the attack immediately. But relying on his intuition, Petrov disobeyed. For almost five minutes, he stalled, holding his hotline phone in one hand and his intercom in the other, barking orders to his personnel to get back to their desks.

Then he made the decision that saved the world. Summoning up his firmest voice, he called his Kremlin liaison and said it was a false alarm. But today he admits, “I wasn’t 100 percent sure. Not even close to 100 percent.”

Months later, it was determined that sunlight reflecting off clouds in Montana had caused a faulty satellite computer assembly to report a missile launch flash. But by that time, Petrov’s excellent military career had been sidetracked. He wasn’t fired, but he was transferred — and never got any medals or recognition. When his wife was found to have a brain tumor in 1993, he retired to take care of her. When she died, he borrowed money to give her a funeral.

Today, Petrov, 67, lives in Moscow on a monthly pension of less than $200.

And a picutre of him

[Dolf]

Laurent,

Great story! Thanks for posting it!

So if the World still exists today we owe it to men like this colonel Stanislav Petrov! Thanks God such reasonnable people do exist, otherwise most probably none of us would be here today to tell his amazing story!

What a shame that such a Hero for Mankind must survive with such a miserable monthly pension of less than $200!
I wonder why the new Russian authorities still don't give such people the credit they indeed deserve!

Thanks,

Dolf

[ericlida]

Thank you Laurent.
This story is great.
I am surprised that Mr. Petrov did not get in prison for disobeying the order. I would say: "He was lucky".
No doubt, this MAN deserves much more than he has today.
I believe that there are many more Heros live in Russia and other former Soviet Union countries in poverty and not being recognized.
Unfortunately we cannot change it.
Life is not fair
Eric

[Al-muell]

Grat story!
Shame his merits have been recognised so late.
Btw. Is he realy colonel? he seems to have the rank of "podpołkovnik" (lt. colonel)?

[new world]

I don't see why you find this article so exciting.

We don't even know how real chain of events unfolded on that day. Lives of millions fo Soviet citizens were on line at that very moment and officer Petrov's main duty was to protect them.

According to the article, I don't see how was he convinced of false alarm? What if the strikes were real, what if some idiot did order only 5 missile launch? What facts did officer Petrov have at his disposal to make such important decision?

What he should have done - was to escalate this matter to higher commanding officers, as stated in military regulations.

Later in 1991 a group of traitors (presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia) decided to get rid of Soviet Union, and because of officers like Petrov no one stood up to protect the country, the country that all officers swore to defend till the last drop of their blood.

You're talking about medals for officer Petrov, well - in my opinion he shuld be lucky he wasn't sued by the military tribunal and executet for his incompetent acts...

Just my 5 kopecks.

William

[Nack]

I don't know that I would say the article is "exciting," but it is certainly interesting, at least to westerners like me. Keep in mind that when we grew up we were told that the Soviet people, especially the military, were mindless automatons of the Soviet government, who would just as soon blow up the US as brew coffee if given the chance. The story is further evidence that the Soviet people were nothing of the sort. In that respect, it is interesting.

As far as why the colonel felt justified in delaying the launch of his missles, perhaps given that he was in a "secret," "hidden" bunker with 5,000 missiles at his disposal he could afford to wait. 5 US missles would not be able to knock out all the USSR ICBMS, or sub/naval-based assets either. If 5 missiles were on the way, they couldnt be stopped, and did not figure into the calculus. Why not wait 5 minutes and see if it was a false alarm before obliterating the planet?

[new world]

I personally find this story blown out of proportion by folks who are in charge of the award.

I find it hard to believe that control of ENTIRE missile defense system (over 5000 rockets as article states) was given to a junior Colonel...

The truth is somehow smaller that is presented in the article...Most likely this guy was one of many officers on duty acsross multiple control centers and his actions - if they took place - did not have enough scope as to save the WORLD...

But you know how media is - every small matter is of global importance

William

[redmedals]

Obviously there must be some substance to the story for the man to be so honored and I for one agree he deserves better than he apparently received. Whether he had his hand on the button of 5, 500 or 5000 missiles is irrelevant. What is relevant is he did not order a launch and this is what is recognized. Had he ordered a launch it is a foregone conclusion we would not be discussing this matter here today.
Ron

[Dolf]

William,

As far as I'm concerned, it's not the article itself that I find "exciting".
In fact IMHO there is nothing I find really exciting about this. Interesting would be a more appropriate word I guess.
And reading it my way (meaning that all media exaggerations don't count for my final appreciation) I'm only grateful that such men exist, specially among the military.

I believe that by doing what he did, acting as he did, in fact he saved not only millions of Soviet citizens lifes but also the Humankind from a major disater.
Calm, cold blood, common sense, wisdom, cold and intelligent analysis of the situation, are much appreciated on military officers in such conditions I believe.

Any wargamer knows (and many Eastern Europe people were/are very gifted on strategy games!) that in the case of such attack (using nuclear power between the two most powerful nations on Earth as it was the case then), with the most destructive weapon available, that would mean that you wanted to annihilate your enemy for good, once and for all.
So IMHO his thoughts “Who would order an attack with only five missiles? That big an idiot has not been born yet, not even in the U.S.” (not even R.R. the US President then) prove IMHO that colonel Stanislav Petrov reacted in a very intelligent manner!
I wouldn't be surprised if he was/is very good playing chess and/or other strategy games!
Also don't forget that he did an excellent analysis of the situation, by not trusting 100% "a new, unproven Soviet satellite system" (I guess he knew how those things can fail, specially in the former USSR). I don't know if he had other radars on the way of those eventual missiles, between the USA and the USSR (perhaps in former DDR), that could confirm if the alert was real or not, but that is possible.

I think that before launching his own missiles he needed a 100% confirmation that USSR was indeed being attacked.
I guess we are lucky that he didn't act like a fool!

Of course that given the political circumstances in former USSR those days he risked to pass on martial court and be shot.
Even thought (IMHO) he did his job well done!

What I find a shame is that now that those days are over, the current Russian authorities don't regognize his merits and opt to let him die slowly with a miserable pension of less than $200.

Just my two cents,

Dolf

[Nack]

Well, at any rate, the story brings up an interesting discussion.

It's been a while since world history in college, but wasn't the mutually-assured-destruction theory still in play during 1983? If so, an actual missile attack against the US would have resulted in the US firing a massive salvo, which the USSR would have responded to by launching whatever they had left. Thus, mutually-assured destruction. So I guess the argument could be made that, if the story is true, the colonel did "save the world."

I have to admit that a jr colonel manning the entire soviet rocket force does seem a bit unplausible. And I agree that the liberal media loves to blow stuff like this out of proportion.

Nevertheless, after thinking about this, the more interesting thing that occurs to me is that the same scenario probably happened at other times in the USSR, and the US as well. It's kinda suprising that a false-alarm-triggered nuclear war didn't happen.