The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Fridge => History Section => Topic started by: Malte279 on September 26, 2008, 04:53:04 AM
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Exactly 25 years ago on September 26th 1983 the world was doomed.
Tempers ran high in that period of the cold war. Both parties of conflict were racing for a superior armament (after all it is much more beneficial to be able to destroy the world 1765 times than just 1764 times), just three weeks before Soviet jets had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 killing 269 people which had penetrated into Soviet airspace, and in the west military exercise "Able Archer 83" was launched, the preparation for a nuclear war, which by the KGB was interpreted as a preparation for the first strike.
And on September 26th 1983 the world was doomed. Soviet satellites detected and reported the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in the US that was heading for the Soviet Union.
The information was received by Stanislav Petrov, an Air Defence lieutenant colonel, was the officer on duty at the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow on that day. By all orders and regulations Petrov would have been obliged to pass on the information immediately and launch the "counterstrike". But in this situation of unimaginable pressure Petrov used his common sense which told him that no nuclear first strike would be conducted with just a single or just a few nuclear missiles but with many. Even after the launch of four more missiles was reported (and without any possibility to verify the truth or falseness of the reports) Petrov did not follow the regular procedure and did not start the alarm that would, in all likelihood have triggered a nuclear war.
The reports about the launched missiles turned out to be a wrong interpretation of sunlight reflections on clouds near a US air force base in Montana. No missile had been launched. Still Petrov took a huge personal risk in not obeying the orders that would have almost certainly caused a nuclear war.
He was not commended for his action, but neither did he receive any praise and henceforth he was regarded as an unreliable officer. In 2004 he was awarded the World Citizen Award along with a trophy and US$1000 for saving the existence of mankind. Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov is probably one of the so far unsung heroes of our age. He is living in very modest (edging to poverty) circumstances in Frjasino. The impending release of further documents may rise awareness of a man who had the rare courage not to obey orders but his common sense.
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He did the right thing. Listning to reason, and logical thinking is one of the most important things to do.
I take my hat off (if I had one) for Petrov. A man in such a situation could have easily made the wrong choice, and the pressure he was under most have been almost unbearable.
However, giving him only US$ 1000 is pretty greedy. It shows, in my oppinion, that the human population dosen't take history, nor threats like thiese, serious enough.
And at one point, something is gonna go wrong. Though only time can decide when it will.
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Hmm.. That's pretty heroic..
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Very brave man I must say. :yes
While he may not be recognized so much world wide, he's recognized here. :D
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That was pretty heroic indeed.
A wrong decision and things would have been different.
He will sure be remembered here.
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He did do a brave thing and he was in a no win situation. He would have had the same thing happen even if he had obeyed orders I would guess. & likely the same would have happened to him if he was in the us military and the situation was reversed.
Reminds me of a short story under the same setting, but in that one the ussr military person did obey his standing orders, and just before he died what they thought were missiles lauched at them from the us vanished and they realized it was a computer error and they and especially him had started a needless nuclear war and had doomed the world. The strain of that knowledge is what killed the person in the story.
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Just reading about his situation sends shivers up my spine. I'm not surprised nobody's ever awarded him: governments have never been too big on rewarding those who defy protocol. But it's people like Stanislav Petrov, Daniel Ellsberg, and RomÈo Dallaire that make the difference in the long run.
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Petrov definitely deserves more respect than he's been shown. Humankind owes its existence to him :yes.
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Wow... I don't usually visit this section of the forum, but... Geez... Wow, that's... Amazing... ...*stunned silence* ...............I think for my own sanity, I'd best leave this section at once, no offense to anyone here... :(