16 Facts About Stanislav Petrov

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov was a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident.

On 26 September 1983, three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to four more.

Stanislav Petrov was born on 7 September 1939 to a Russian family near Vladivostok.

Stanislav Petrov enrolled at the Kiev Military Aviation Engineering Academy of the Soviet Air Forces, and after graduating in 1972 he joined the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

Stanislav Petrov was married to Raisa, and had a son, Dmitri, and a daughter, Yelena.

Stanislav Petrov, suspecting a false alarm, decided to wait for a confirmation that never came.

Stanislav Petrov later indicated that the influences on his decision included that he had been told a US strike would be all-out, so five missiles seemed an illogical start; that the launch detection system was new and, in his view, not yet wholly trustworthy; that the message passed through 30 layers of verification too quickly; and that ground radar failed to pick up corroborating evidence, even after minutes of delay.

However, in a 2013 interview, Stanislav Petrov said at the time he was never sure that the alarm was erroneous.

Stanislav Petrov felt that his civilian training helped him make the right decision.

Stanislav Petrov said that his colleagues were all professional soldiers with purely military training and, following instructions, would have reported a missile launch if they had been on his shift.

Stanislav Petrov underwent intense questioning by his superiors about his judgment.

Stanislav Petrov has said that he was neither rewarded nor punished for his actions.

Stanislav Petrov was reassigned to a less sensitive post, took early retirement, and suffered a nervous breakdown.

Stanislav Petrov later retired so he could care for his wife after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Stanislav Petrov died on 19 May 2017 from pneumonia, though it was not widely reported until September.

Stanislav Petrov said he did not know whether he should have regarded himself as a hero for what he did that day.