On September 26, 1983, Colonel Stanislav Petrov saved the world.
Well, he saved about one hundred million lives. He saved Russia and the United States. And he saved the world as we know it.
“I am not a hero,” Petrov said. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”
The right place was Serpukhov-15, a secret bunker near Moscow. It was operated by the Soviet Air Defense Force, a military group that was tasked with monitoring the U.S.S.R.’s Oko satellites, an early warning system for nuclear strikes.
The right time was just after midnight in Moscow when Petrov’s team heard the first alarm. The Oko system detected an incoming air strike from the United States.
Missiles were in the air.
Soon after, the satellite system picked up a second missile, and then a third, fourth, and fifth.
Five missiles in all, in route from the Midwest to the Soviet Union. 20 minutes that would decide the fate of the world.
Petrov had a protocol to follow in this scenario. The team was trained to confirm the attack and then report it to their superiors. Those superiors would then launch a counterattack or stand pat.
But Petrov didn’t give them that opportunity.
He was not able to confirm the attack with a visual on radar, so he reported a false alarm.
He didn’t trust the automated monitoring system. Not yet. And he wanted to confirm the missile launch on radar before reporting anything up the chain of command.
Why would the Americans attack now? And why with just five missiles? Even if the attack landed undetected, it would not be enough to avoid a counterattack from the U.S.S.R.
Petrov waited. “Prodolzhat’ rabotat’,” he said, “KEEP WORKING!”
And the team did just that.
As the sun set in the United States, it created a difficult environment for monitoring systems in Russia. Radar did not agree with the new automated satellite systems, creating doubt and confusion amongst Soviet Air Defense.
Systems showed the rockets continuing to make way towards the U.S.S.R.
Petrov waited.
The United States and Russia had spent considerable time and treasure building up their missile systems in the years following World War II. The potency of each US Minuteman missile is hard to imagine, but let’s try.
If you took every bomb, from every attack, in the six years of World War II, and combined their power into a single explosion, that would only equate to sixty percent of the power held in one single Minuteman warhead.
Oko Satellites detected five.
Tic-Tic-Boom.
An attack would destroy the U.S.S.R., and the counterattack would destroy the United States.
The whole world would deal with nuclear fallout for generations to come. Storms and dust would engulf cities and make continents uninhabitable.
The end of the world? Maybe.
The end of humanity. Yes, that much we can count on.
Again, Petrov had to wonder why? Why now? Even an ocean and a continent away, this was not without repercussions for the Americans.
The clock was ticking. Soon enough, the missiles that had been identified by the Oko satellites would land on Soviet soil.
If Petrov didn’t report the incident, they would not have time for a counterattack.
But when it comes to the end of civilization, the destruction of everyone you know and everything you love, does retaliation really matter?
His team urged him to decide. To call in the attack. Petrov held firm. They would wait for a visual.
But that visual never came.
Eventually it was time for impact.
And nothing happened.
Nothing at all.
They were still alive, in their bunker, outside of Moscow.
Their friends and family were still alive as well. No bombings had been reported. No explosions registered.
As relief washed over the team, the celebration of another day, the rest of the world kept working, as though nothing had happened.
Because nothing had.
Thanks to Petrov.
He said, “Today we did a huge thing.”
And he was right. They did a huge thing, by not doing anything at all.
To learn more about Colonel Stanislav Petrov and September 26, 1983, check out the terrific documentary, “The Man Who Saved the World.”
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