Yesterday I read an article about this man, and I would say that the year'83 was not actually without (possible) escalations. On the 1st of September, a Korean

Yesterday I read an article about this man, and I would say that the year'83 was not actually without (possible) escalations. On the 1st of September, a Korean airplane with 200+ civilians was shot because an "ordinary" officer simply sent a report that a "jumbo jet" was flying over soviet area - and it was "probably a US spying airplane" (that was the idea). Now, if this guy had mentioned "it's a civil airplane, a boeing", I am quite sure things would have been different. The reason Petrov is to be considered a hero of old times is not just because he was able to spot a mistake, but to report something different from what he saw. He took the liberty to decide for an entire nation, and as he also admitted, the 12-13 minutes during which these potential nukes were supposed to reach their final destination were "really long". If he had been so certain, he'd have had no issues - he based his decision on his instinct. If he had simply followed the rules (pretty common in a military hierarchy), we'd probably not be here today. This is what makes this man exceptional - the fact that in the end he even got scolded for not obeying the rules, and that he died "almost" in misery.