September 26, 1983: The night man didn't start a nuclear war

On September 26, 2024, an installation was unveiled in St. Petersburg in honor of Stanislav Petrov, the man who prevented a nuclear war.

Post Editor: Victoria Zherdenovska, the editor-in-chief of the Trust but Verify project.

The basic source of information is ECHO.

On the night of September 25-26, 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on operational duty at the Serpukhov-15 missile defense center (100 km from Moscow). The graduate of the Kiev Higher Radio Engineering School, an analytical engineer, was 45 years old at the time.

While on duty, a satellite system computer detected the takeoff of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from an American base. According to the instructions, Petrov should have immediately informed his superiors and expected an order for a retaliatory launch.

However, after analyzing the information (“launches” were made from only one point and consisted of only a few ICBMs), Lieutenant Colonel Petrov decided - the system trigger was false. That is how he relayed the message to the command. By doing so, he did not start a chain that could have led to a nuclear catastrophe.

After the proceedings it turned out: the Soviet sensors mistook the light of sun rays reflected from clouds for the launch of the American missile....

 This is the installation, which was opened in honor of Stanislav Petrov in St. Petersburg on September 26, 2024.
Photo: «Мемориал», источник: ECHO

Editor's Comment

What different people and what different deeds are united on September 25! And the music of Giuseppe Verdi ...

Cover photo: the opera Don Carlos staged by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti at the Mariinsky Theatre, source: mariinsy.ru. 

Dear reader, We invite you to share your opinion about this post and the Trust but Verify project in general through available communication channels.