The 2014 film by Danish director Peter Anthony The man who saved the world featuring Hollywood stars: Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher and Matt Damon, told the world community about the events in Russia on the night of September 26, 1983. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, the operational duty officer of Serpukhov-15, a command post a hundred kilometers from Moscow, made a decision on which the preservation of peace on Earth largely depended. What happened that night, and what does it mean for humanity?
Cold War
USSR and the USA, two superpowers, after the end of World War II became rivals in the struggle for influence in the post-war world. The irresolvable contradictions between the two models of social structure and their ideology, the ambitions of the leaders of the victorious countries and the lack of a re althe enemy led to a long confrontation that went down in history as the Cold War. Throughout the time, countries found themselves in close proximity to the outbreak of the Third World War.
The Caribbean crisis of 1962 was overcome only as a result of the political will and efforts of the presidents of the two countries: Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy, shown during personal negotiations. The Cold War was accompanied by an unprecedented arms race, in which the Soviet Union began to lose by the early 1980s.
Stanislav Petrov, who by 1983 had risen to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Defense Ministry of the USSR, found the situation of a new round of confrontation between the great powers due to the involvement of the USSR in the war in Afghanistan. United States ballistic missiles are deployed in European countries, to which the Soviet Union immediately withdraws from the Geneva disarmament talks.
The Downed Boeing 747
In power, Ronald Reagan (USA) and Yuri Andropov (November 1982 - February 1984) brought relations between the two countries to the highest point of confrontation since the Caribbean crisis. Oil was added to the fire by the situation with the downed September 1, 1983 South Korean airliner, performing a passenger flight to New York. Deviated from the route by 500 kilometers, the Boeing was shot down over the territory of the USSR by the Su-15 interceptor of Captain Gennady Osipovich. A ballistic missile test was expected that day, which could have led to a tragican airliner with 269 people on board was mistaken for a reconnaissance aircraft.
Be that as it may, it's hard to believe that the decision to destroy the target was made at the level of the division commander, who later served as commander-in-chief of the Air Force and Air Defense. There was a real commotion in the Kremlin, because US presidential candidate Larry MacDonald was on board the downed liner. Only on September 7, the USSR admitted responsibility for the death of a passenger plane. An ICAO investigation confirmed the fact that the aircraft had deviated from the route, but no evidence of preventive actions by the Soviet Air Force has been found so far.
Needless to say, international relations were extremely spoiled at the moment when Stanislav Petrov was once again on duty. 1983 is the year when the SPRN (missile attack warning system) of the USSR was in a state of constant combat readiness.
Night duty
A detailed description of the events with the downed Boeing can best illustrate: in the event of unforeseen circumstances, it is unlikely that General Secretary Andropov's hand would have trembled, pressing the trigger for a retaliatory strike in the event of an enemy nuclear attack.
Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, born in 1939, being an analytical engineer, took up another duty at the Serpukhov-15 checkpoint, where missile launch control was carried out. On the night of September 26, the country slept peacefully, for nothing foreshadowed danger. At 0 hours 15 minutes, the early warning siren roared loudly, illuminatingbanner frightening word "Start". 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 the launch of a nuclear missile by the enemy.
There is no confirmation of the visual channel, and the officer's analytical mind 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.
The danger is over
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?"
After the night incident
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. They realized that by starting to think and make decisions, he violated the charter. Instead of a reward, a scolding followed.
The lieutenant colonel had to justify himself to the air defense commander Yu. Votintsev for an unfilled combat log. No one wanted to admit the stress experienced by the operational duty officer, who in a few moments realized the fragility of the world.
Dismissal from the army
Stanislav Petrov, the man who prevented the world war, 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 the main reason was the illness of his wife, who passed away a few years later, leaving her son and daughter to her husband. It was a difficult period in the life of a former officer who fully realized what loneliness was.
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 a famous person not only at home, but also abroad.
Recognition in the West
The very situation in which a soldier in the Soviet Union did not believe the system, influencing the further development of events, shocked the Western world. The "Association of Citizens of the World" at the United Nations decided to reward 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 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 tolack of funds. The picture was released in 2014, causing a mixed reaction in the country.
American PR
The official version of the Russian state of the events of 1983 was expressed in documents submitted to the UN. It follows from them that the SA lieutenant colonel alone did not save the world. For the Serpukhov-15 command post is not the only facility that controls the launch of missiles.
The forums are discussing the events of 1983, where professionals express their opinion about a kind of PR, inflated by the Americans to take control of the entire nuclear potential of the country. Many question the awards presented, in their opinion, to Petrov Stanislav Evgrafovich, absolutely undeservedly.
But there are those who consider the actions of Lieutenant Colonel Petrov unappreciated by their own country.
From the words of Kevin Costner
In the 2014 film, a Hollywood star 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 US in response to the system's message about the attack, it saved the lives of many people, now forever bound by this decision.
