The man who saved the world from nuclear war 1983. Stanislav Petrov - how did a Soviet officer abolish nuclear war? Life on a string

Yesterday marked exactly 35 years since the day when a real war almost began between America and the USSR.
On September 26, 1983, planet Earth survived thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov.

Making choices and taking responsibility for them 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 to Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov the fate of billions of human lives had to be decided. Moreover, to decide in conditions when there were only a few seconds left to think about it.

In the fall of 1983, the world seemed to have gone crazy. 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. The incident with the South Korean Boeing, shot down in the Far East on September 1, also contributed to this.

After this, in the USA 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 by a seriously ill Yuri Andropov, and in general the composition of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee was not distinguished by youth and health. However, there was no one willing to give in to the adversary and give in to him. And in general, American pressure was perceived extremely negatively in Soviet society. It is generally difficult to scare a country that survived the Great Patriotic War.

At the same time, there was anxiety in the air. It seemed like everything was really hanging by a thin thread.

Analyst from a military dynasty

At this time, in the closed military town of Serpukhov-15, the operational duty officer of the command post of the space missile attack warning system was Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov.

In the Petrov family, three generations of men were military men, and Stanislav continued the dynasty. Having graduated 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 extremely difficult, calls for services occurred at night, on weekends, and on holidays - any problems had to be resolved promptly.

Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was the chief analyst at Serpukhov-15, and not a regular 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 Stanislav Petrov’s watch.

A random person could not become a duty officer at such a facility. The training lasted up to two years, despite the fact that all officers already had a higher military education. Each time the duty officers received detailed instructions.

However, everyone already understood what they were responsible for. A sapper makes only one mistake - an old truth. But the sapper risks only himself, and a mistake by the person on duty at such a facility could cost the lives of hundreds of millions and billions of people.

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 hall of the duty shift 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 “two” - this is the code for the highest probability that a missile attack on the USSR is actually happening.

Moreover, the system recorded several more launches from the same missile base. According to all the 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. My legs were weak.

According to the instructions, the lieutenant colonel was then supposed to report the US attack to the head of state, Yuri Andropov. After this, the Soviet leader would have had 10-12 minutes to make a decision and give the command to retaliate. And then both countries will disappear in the flames of nuclear fires.

Moreover, Andropov’s decision would be based precisely on the military’s information, and the likelihood that a blow would be struck against the United States is extremely high.

It is unknown how a regular duty officer would have behaved, but chief analyst Petrov, who had worked with the system for many years, allowed himself not to believe it. Years later, he said that he proceeded from the postulate that a computer, by definition, is a fool. The likelihood that the system was wrong was reinforced 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. But no launches were noted from other American bases.

As a result, Petrov decided to consider the signal about a nuclear attack to be false. I informed all services about this by phone. True, in the operational duty officer’s room there was only a special connection, and Petrov sent his assistant to the next room to call on a regular phone.

He sent me simply because the lieutenant colonel’s own legs wouldn’t obey him.

The Fate of Humanity and the Blank Journal

Only Stanislav Petrov knows what it was like to survive the next few tens of minutes. 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 deficiency was corrected, and the missile attack warning system successfully continued its operation.

And immediately after the emergency, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov received a stick from his superiors because during the inspection he did not have his combat log filled out. Petrov himself logically asked: what for? A telephone receiver 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 humanity in a matter of seconds. And you can’t add anything later, not in real time – it’s a criminal offense.

On the other hand, General Yuri Votintsev, Petrov’s boss, can also be understood - the world was brought to the brink of a nuclear disaster, there must be someone to blame? Getting to the creators of the system is not so easy, but the person on duty is right there. And even if he saved the world, he didn’t fill out the journal?!

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 some time, Stanislav Petrov quit himself - he was simply tired of the irregular working hours and endless worries.

He continued to work on space systems, but as a civilian specialist.

The world learned about who he owed his life to only 10 years later. Moreover, none other than General Yuri Votintsev spoke about this in the Pravda newspaper, who mercilessly denounced Lieutenant Colonel Petrov for an unfilled journal.

From that moment on, journalists began to constantly visit the retired lieutenant colonel, who lived modestly in the Moscow region. Letters also came from ordinary people who thanked Petrov for saving the world.

In January 2006, at the UN headquarters in New York, Stanislav Petrov was presented with a special award from the international public organization “Association of World Citizens.” It is a crystal figurine of “Hand Holding the Globe” with the inscription engraved on it "To the man who prevented nuclear war".

In February 2012, in Baden-Baden, Stanislav Petrov was awarded the German Media Prize. In February 2013, the retired lieutenant colonel became a laureate of the Dresden Prize, awarded for the prevention of armed conflicts.

Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov himself said about himself in one of his interviews:

“I’m just a regular 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 in May 2017 at the age of 77 from congestive pneumonia. His son confirmed the information about his father's death.

Andrey Sidorchik

Life on a string

September 26, 1983 Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov the fate of billions of human lives had to be decided. Moreover, to decide in conditions when there were only a few seconds left to think about it.

In the fall of 1983, the world seemed to have gone crazy. 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. The incident with the South Korean Boeing, shot down in the Far East on September 1, also contributed to this.

After this, in the USA and other countries, the hottest heads in all seriousness called for “revenge” on the USSR, including with the use of nuclear weapons.

At the same time, there was anxiety in the air. It seemed like everything was really hanging by a thin thread.

Analyst from a military dynasty

At this time, in the closed military town of Serpukhov-15, the operational duty officer of the command post of the space missile attack warning system was Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov.

Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was the chief analyst at Serpukhov-15, and not a regular 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 Stanislav Petrov’s watch.

However, everyone already understood what they were responsible for. A sapper makes only one mistake—an old truth. But the sapper risks only himself, and a mistake by the person on duty at such a facility could cost the lives of hundreds of millions and billions of people.

Stanislav Petrov. year 2013. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Phantom attack

Moreover, the system recorded several more launches from the same missile base. According to all the 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. My legs were weak.

Moreover, Andropov’s decision would be based precisely on the military’s information, and the likelihood that a blow would be struck against the United States is extremely high.

He sent me simply because the lieutenant colonel’s own legs wouldn’t obey him.

Stanislav Petrov Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The Fate of Humanity and the Blank Journal

Only Stanislav Petrov knows what it was like to survive the next few tens of minutes. 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.

On the other side, General Yuri Votintsev, Petrov’s boss, can also be understood - the world was brought to the brink of a nuclear disaster, there must be someone to blame? Getting to the creators of the system is not so easy, but the person on duty is right there. And even if he saved the world, he didn’t fill out the journal?!

Stanislav Petrov. 2011. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

It's just that kind of work

He continued to work on space systems, but as a civilian specialist.

In January 2006, at the UN headquarters in New York, Stanislav Petrov was presented with a special award from the international public organization “Association of World Citizens.” It is a crystal figurine of “Hand Holding the Globe” with the inscription “To the Man Who Prevented Nuclear War” engraved on it.

Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov himself said about himself in one of his interviews: “I’m 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 .

MOSCOW, September 21 – RIA Novosti. Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who recognized an erroneous signal about an American nuclear missile strike on September 26, 1983 and prevented the launch of missiles against targets in the United States, received a scolding from his superiors instead of encouragement and was forced to resign from military service, the scientific director of the Russian military told RIA Novosti on Thursday -Historical Society (RVIO) Mikhail Myagkov.

Officer Petrov received the Dresden Prize for preventing war“The feat of Stanislav Petrov will go down in history as one of the greatest deeds in the name of peace in recent decades,” said Heidrun Hannusch, chairman of the Friends of Dresden in Germany.

Sun ray 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 responsibilities included monitoring the proper functioning of spacecraft in the missile attack warning system.

On the night of September 26, 1983, he was at the operational duty post of the system. On the computer of the information processing center, a message appeared from a satellite with a high degree of reliability about the launch of five nuclear-equipped intercontinental ballistic missiles from US territory.

“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, had he made 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 put into action ", said Myagkov, noting that, having engineering knowledge and an analytical mind, Petrov was able to calculate that the Americans launched the missile from one point - this could not happen in the event of a massive strike.

“He began to doubt, and, in the end, made the right decision that this was a system error. As it turned out later, the sun’s rays, reflecting from the clouds, illuminated the Soviet detection sensors,” said the scientific director of the Russian Military Research Institute.

The agency's interlocutor noted that the lieutenant colonel's commanders did not appreciate his contribution to strengthening peace.

“Stanislav Petrov then received a scolding from his superiors, was forced to resign, was in the hospital. And international awards found him later. But this is, indeed, a unique case when we were on the verge of a disaster due to an error made by technology, but it was the human factor that was able to save us, our country, and the whole world from a nuclear disaster,” Myagkov said.

Awarded abroad

Due to 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 World Citizens" with the engraving "To the person who prevented nuclear war." In 2012, in Baden-Baden, Germany, Petrov was awarded the German Media Prize. In 2013, he was awarded the Dresden Prize for the Prevention of Conflict and Violence in Germany.

Petrov died on May 19, 2017 in the Moscow region, which became known only in September 2017.

The USSR was forced to answer

Myagkov believes that there probably would not have been such a fierce confrontation, and such risks, if the United States had not pursued a policy of dragging the Soviet Union into the arms race and had not escalated conflicts related to nuclear weapons to the limit.

“The Soviet Union was forced to respond,” he emphasized, adding that the Cold War was a confrontation between two blocs, the Soviet and the Western, which used all resources to acquire geopolitical, ideological and economic superiority in the world.

“In my opinion, the source of the Cold War was the results of World War II. Here the main responsibility lies with the United States, because it was they who became the first owners of nuclear weapons, used them in Japan and, since the end of 1945, developed a plan for a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Of course, The nuclear factor played a key role in the Cold War,” Myagkov noted.

According to him, by the early 1960s, the USSR had an order of magnitude fewer nuclear warheads and was at a disadvantage, which prompted the Soviet leadership to take tough economic measures in order to increase its military, primarily nuclear, potential.

“However, during the Cold War there were a number of crisis moments that we are studying today and drawing conclusions in order to prevent such a confrontation from happening again, when the world stood on the brink of a nuclear disaster and could turn to 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 Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when all that was left before the war was literally to lend a hand. In both cases, a large share of the responsibility lies with the United States," said the scientific director of the Russian Military Research Institute.

Lesson for America

According to Myagkov, “Americans must draw conclusions from this situation.”

“After all, both the USSR at that time and today’s Russia are ready to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike in the event of an attack. Let’s ask ourselves, could there be such people (like Lieutenant Colonel Petrov - ed.) in American headquarters and in American technical missile detection points? This is also an important lesson not only for us, but also for them,” said RIA Novosti’s interlocutor.

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.”

27.09.2015

And for the finale, we want to tell you one instructive story about politics, war and common sense. It happened a long time ago - in September 1983, but it would be useful to hear for those who today like to scare the whole world with an imminent war, aggression or promises to create new military bases on foreign borders. It’s scary to imagine what kind of troubles inadequate politicians can lead to if something really serious happens—a technical failure or provocation. This is the story of how a nuclear war almost started in the fall of 1983. But the threat was real: at night, missile attack warning systems screamed in alarm - missiles were launched towards the Soviet Union from an American base. There was only one instruction in case of such an emergency - shoot down the missiles. But Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was on duty that night, but he did not carry out this order and did not press the start button. Between the tribunal and common sense, he chose the latter. But who is he - a hero or an oath breaker? So what happened then, on the night of September 26, 1983, who almost started a nuclear war against us?

Our special correspondent Dmitry PISCHUKHIN was looking for details of this long-standing story. But first he went to Fryazino near Moscow to meet with Stanislav Evgrafovich himself, now a military pensioner.

1983 The very peak of the Cold War. American President Ronald Reagan for the first time calls the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire.” Western propaganda carefully creates the image of a bloodthirsty enemy from our country. Under the pretext of the threat of attack, the United States is modernizing its strategic nuclear forces and building the latest intercontinental ballistic missiles. However, no one could even imagine that nuclear Armageddon could begin not due to malicious intent, but by accident due to a fatal mistake.

Fryazino town near Moscow. Typical high-rise building. The residents of the house are clearly surprised by the arrival of the television. It seems that no one realizes that their neighbor, a modest military pensioner, once saved the world from a nuclear disaster.

“Tell me, do you consider yourself a hero?”

“No, what I don’t consider is a hero.”

At the end of September 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov went into service in place of his sick partner. Having made strong tea as usual, he prepared for another boring shift. The analyst knew the location of American missile silos by heart. Reconnaissance satellites recorded any unusual phenomenon on enemy territory. But suddenly the silence of the night was unexpectedly interrupted by a deafening alarm.

Stanislav Petrov, former employee of the Serpukhov-15 command post, retired lieutenant colonel:“It was out of the blue. Zero hours fifteen minutes on the electronic clock. Suddenly a siren starts blaring, the “Start!” banner flashes. in big blood-red letters."

Computers showed Petrov that the United States had just started a nuclear war. An intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from one of the American military bases, this was clearly evidenced by satellite data. There was no more than 15 minutes of time to think - that’s how long a warhead flies from the USA to the USSR. The decision to retaliate with a nuclear strike had to be made immediately. Cold sweat ran down Petrov's back.

Stanislav Petrov, former employee of the Serpukhov-15 command post, retired lieutenant colonel:“I stood up from the control panel, and my heart sank. I see people are confused. The operators turned their heads, jumped up from their seats, everyone was looking at me. I was scared, frankly."

Everyone knew very well what to do in the event of a nuclear attack; Soviet officers had gone through similar scenarios more than once during exercises. But was it possible to calmly press the “start” button when everyone still clearly remembered the terrible disaster of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Moreover, literally just now, in September 1983, the intensity of relations between the USSR and the West reached its peak. A plane flew into Soviet airspace over Kamchatka without permission and ignored all radio signals and warnings. The command decided that he was an American spy and ordered his destruction.

Jonathan Sanders, professor of journalism at Stony Brook University, former correspondent for CBS in Moscow: “This was a provocation on the part of the CIA, which made a bad situation even worse. The Russian controller told the pilot to shoot down the plane. Not long before this, an American spy plane actually flew over Kamchatka. And then he appeared on the radar again. And since he was in Soviet airspace - because of stupidity, just stupidity! “We could have started a world war.”

It turned out that the fighters had fired missiles at a civilian Boeing of South Korean Airlines, which had gone off course. More than two hundred passengers and crew members died. Reagan again blamed the “Evil Empire” for everything. This incident freed America's hands - the States are beginning to deploy medium-range missiles in Europe. The then Secretary General Andropov states that a symmetrical response will be given in the near future.

Matvey Polynov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Contemporary Russian History at St. Petersburg State University:“The world is on the brink of nuclear war. When we supplied our missiles to the GDR and Czechoslovakia, this did not balance our security. The fact is that if American missiles reached the territory of the USSR, they covered the entire European part of the USSR, then Soviet missiles did not reach their target - the United States."

In such dramatic circumstances, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov had to make a difficult decision - to report to the top about a nuclear attack or to double-check the data. Counting the time of the missiles' approach to Moscow, the intelligence analyst dialed the commander's number.

Despite the fact that the detection systems assessed the probability of an attack as one hundred percent, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov refused to follow his job description and report the attack to the top. He was confused that the Americans carried out all the launches from one single base. Therefore, Petrov turned off the alarm and took full responsibility upon himself.

Stanislav Petrov, former employee of the Serpukhov-15 command post, retired lieutenant colonel:“I pick up the tube. I gave you false information. And at this time the siren roared again - the second start has begun! I affirm that the second goal will also be false.”

The difficult decision that Stanislav Petrov made threatened him with a military tribunal. But the experienced military man did not give in to emotions and in the end turned out to be right. The world, which was on the verge of destruction within 15 minutes, was saved.

Stanislav Petrov, former employee of the Serpukhov-15 command post, retired lieutenant colonel:“I had a crazy thought, what if I was wrong. Well, what can they do with five missiles? The maximum will fall on Moscow, but nothing more. The state will remain intact."

From his time at military school, Petrov remembered an indicative incident. In October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet submarine comes under American bombing off the Cuban coast. The submarine is forced to lie deep on the bottom, which causes it to lose contact with the shore. Moscow has not given any signals for two weeks. The commander comes to the conclusion that the third world war has begun and decides to release the entire nuclear arsenal towards America. The captain is stopped by the assistant, who offers to ascend at his own risk. Already on the surface, the sailors realized that they could have made a fatal mistake.

Sergei Boev, General Director of RTI OJSC, General Designer of the national missile attack warning system: “The human factor is always present in complex technical systems, and we must always be prepared for them, on the one hand. But with the development of technology, speed and processing of the information it receives, then, of course, today the influence of the human factor is decreasing.”

The “secret” stamp on the story that happened to Petrov was removed only in the late nineties. Ten years ago, at the UN headquarters, a retired lieutenant colonel was even presented with a special award - “The Man Who Saved the World.”

Dmitry Pishchukhin, correspondent:“Would you start World War III?”

Stanislav Petrov, former employee of the Serpukhov-15 command post, retired lieutenant colonel:“I will not be the culprit of the Third World War, that’s all.”

Back in 1983, the world lived as usual, unaware of the catastrophe it was facing. The fact that Petrov prevented an almost inevitable exchange of nuclear strikes was recognized by many military experts. But what if there was someone else in his place? Or would the lieutenant colonel have come to duty that day in a bad mood? What would happen to us if a military man lost his nerve at the last moment? What would the world look like after the nuclear apocalypse? And could this story teach the nuclear powers anything?

After a lengthy check, it turned out that the optics of military satellites mistook solar reflections on the surface of high-altitude clouds for missile trails. The 1983 crisis unfolded behind closed doors and exposed many deficiencies in both countries' nuclear shields. But the main thing that the world learned is that the safety of the planet can depend on the composure and responsibility of just one person.

19.05.2017

Petrov Stanislav Evgrafovich

Military figure

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 analytical engineer, he worked as an operational duty officer at the Serpukhov-15 command post, located 100 km from Moscow. At that time there was a cold war 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 false missile warning system alerted him to a US attack. 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 his next duty at the Serpukhov-15 checkpoint, where missile launches were monitored. On the night of September 26, the country slept peacefully. At 0:15 a.m., the early warning system siren roared loudly, highlighting the frightening word “Start” on the banner. Behind him appeared: “The first rocket has launched, the highest reliability.” It was about a nuclear strike from one of the American bases. There is no regulation on how much a commander should think, but what happened in his head during the subsequent moments is scary to think about. Because according to protocol, he was immediately obliged to report the launch of a nuclear missile by the enemy.

There was no confirmation of the visual channel, and the officer's analytical mind began to work out the possibility of a computer system error. Having created more than one machine himself, he was aware that anything was possible, despite 30 levels of verification. They report to him 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.” Despite the instructions, the officer takes responsibility. Since then, for the whole world, Stanislav Petrov is the man who prevented world war.

Today, a retired lieutenant colonel living in the town 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 behind him. Stanislav Petrov answers honestly: “The chances were fifty-fifty.” The most serious test is the minute-by-minute repetition of the early warning signal, which announced the launch of the next missile. There were five of them in total. But he stubbornly waited for information from the visual channel, and the radars could not detect thermal radiation. The world has never been so 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 to dust.

Only after 23 minutes the lieutenant colonel was able to exhale freely, having received confirmation that the decision was correct. Today one question torments him: “What would have happened if that night he had not replaced his sick partner and in his place was not an engineer, but a military commander, accustomed to obeying instructions?” The next morning commissions began working at the control point. After a while, the reason for the false alarm of the early warning sensors will be found: the optics reacted to sunlight reflected by clouds. A huge number of scientists, including distinguished academicians, developed a computer system.

To admit that Stanislav Petrov did the right thing and showed heroism means to undo the work of an entire team of the best minds in the country who demand punishment for poor quality work. Therefore, at first the officer was promised a reward, but then they changed their mind. The lieutenant colonel had to make excuses to air defense commander Yuri Votintsev for not filling out the combat log. After some time, he decided to leave the army by submitting his resignation.

After spending several months in hospitals, he settled in a small apartment received from the military department in Fryazino near Moscow, receiving a telephone without waiting in line. The decision was difficult, but the main reason was the illness of his wife, who passed away a few years later, leaving her husband with a son and daughter. It was a difficult period in the life of the former officer, who fully realized what loneliness was.

In the nineties, the former commander of missile and space defense, Yuri Votintsev, the incident at the Serpukhov-15 command post was declassified and made public, which made Lieutenant Colonel Petrov a famous person not only in his homeland, but also abroad. The very situation in which a soldier in the Soviet Union did not trust the system, influencing the further development of events, shocked the Western world.

The Association of World Citizens at the United Nations decided to award the hero. In January 2006, Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov was presented with an award - a crystal figurine: “The man who prevented a nuclear war.” In 2012, the German media awarded him a prize, and two years later the organizing committee in Dresden awarded him 25 thousand euros for preventing armed conflict.

During the presentation of the first award, the Americans began to initiate the creation of a documentary film about the Soviet officer. Stanislav Petrov himself starred in the title role. The process dragged on for many years due to lack of funds. The film 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 becomes so imbued with his fate that he gives 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 influenced the life of every person around the world. By choosing not to retaliate by launching missiles towards the United States when the system reported an attack, he saved the lives of many people who are now bound forever by this decision.