September 26, 1983 Stanislav Petrov. Officer Stanislav Petrov, who prevented a nuclear war: I saved the world? It was a working episode. September. combat crew

On September 26, 1983, Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty at the Serpukhov-15 command post, 100 km from Moscow. The Cold War was in full swing. Petrov's task was to monitor the sensors of the space early warning system for the launch of nuclear missiles. If the sensors had signaled a nuclear attack, Petrov's duty would have been to immediately notify the country's leadership, which made the decision whether to retaliate.

So, on September 26, the computer alerted Petrov to the launch of missiles from the American base. Despite the terrible threat, the lieutenant colonel retained complete composure. He analyzed the readings of the sensors and was confused by the fact that the missiles were launched from only one point, and there were only a few missiles themselves. Petrov came to the conclusion that there was a case of a system failure and did not notify the high command. As it turned out later, the sensors were illuminated by the reflection from the clouds sunlight. This issue has been fixed.

Petrov's iron self-control may have saved the lives of all of us, because if a nuclear war had started because of this mistake, the consequences would have been devastating.

January 19, 2006 in New York at the UN Headquarters, Stanislav Petrov was presented with a special award of 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.

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Last updated 09/14/2018

Making a choice and being responsible for it is never easy. Even when it comes only to your 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 of ​​a "crusade" against the Soviet Union, brought the intensity 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 the officers already had a 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 .

19.05.2017

Petrov Stanislav Evgrafovich

military leader

Retired lieutenant colonel

Stanislav Petrov was born on September 7, 1939 in the city of Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai. Graduate of the Kyiv Higher Military Aviation Engineering School. Having received the specialty of an analyst engineer, he worked as an operational duty officer at the Serpukhov-15 command post, located 100 km from Moscow. At that time, the Cold War was going on. In 1984 he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

A Soviet officer who prevented a potential nuclear war on September 26, 1983, when a US attack was reported due to a false alarm of a missile attack warning system. On that day, Stanislav Petrov, the operational duty officer of Serpukhov-15, made a decision on which the preservation of peace on Earth largely depended and which prevented an armed conflict.

Being an analytical engineer, he took up another duty at the Serpukhov-15 checkpoint, where missile launch was monitored. On the night of September 26, the country slept peacefully. 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 the world war.

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?” 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 a 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. The lieutenant colonel had to justify himself to the air defense commander Yuri Votintsev for an unfilled combat log. After some time, he decided to retire from the army, 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 main reason there was an illness of his wife, who passed away a few years later, leaving a son and daughter to her husband. It was a difficult period in the life of a former officer who fully realized 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 famous person not only at home, but also abroad. 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. In Russia, the documentary film was released only in 2018.

In the 2014 film, Hollywood star Kevin Costner 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.

MOSCOW, September 21 - RIA Novosti. Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who on September 26, 1983 recognized the erroneous signal of an American nuclear missile strike and prevented the launch of missiles against targets in the United States, instead of being encouraged, 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.

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 that time, was in a state where the fate of the whole world could depend on the decision of one person, he had to make 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 him in the following time. But this, indeed, is the unique case when we were on the verge of disaster 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 from the public organization "Association of Citizens of the World" 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 Conflict 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.

"The 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 source cold war were the results of World War II. The United States bears the main responsibility here, because it was they who became the first possessors of nuclear weapons, used them 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 played a key role in the Cold War," Myagkov said.

According to him, by the beginning of the 1960s, the USSR possessed an order of magnitude fewer nuclear warheads and was in a disadvantageous position, 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 Caribbean crisis of 1962, when before the war it was literally a matter of reaching out. 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 launch 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."