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Soviet Officer Stanislav Petrov, 'The Man Who Saved the World' (2017)

128 points by Anon84 7y ago

awestley 7y ago
Not everyone can say they saved the world (and it be true). RIP Mr. Petrov.
- Stratoscope 7y ago
  It's no exaggeration to say that Mr. Petrov did save the world. If he had passed his report up the chain of command, the Soviet Union could well have launched a retaliation strike. As Jeffrey Lewis is quoted in the article, "we should be talking about the great nuclear war of 1983 if any of us survived." RIP and thank you sir.
  - human20190310 7y ago
    When the available evidence says "blow up the world", a gut-check is in order. Petrov checked himself before he wrecked himself and everyone else. Bravo!
- wolph 7y ago
  I wouldn't call it saving. It's more like not destroying. You would hope that for a world ending event they would need verification from multiple stations reporting at the same time though...
  - dudhdhdhdhd 7y ago
    The danger of nuclear war is that there is no time to double check from other stations. Imagine, your radars see the incoming, by which time they’re already a third of the way. The SSNN are somewhere, close, about to launch. Those are close, so little time to react. Short range missiles in Germany are 5 minutes away from wiping your allies. In the meantime you have to pass this memo along, silo doors have to be opened, missiles warmed up, etc. Today it’s much more dangerous. Nukes are hundreds, not thousands of mi. away from Moscow, so Moscow has 5 minutes head up before it’s hit. We’re unlikely to have a Petrov double guess a radar full of clouds. Any bug in the Russians radar software that looks like clouds, and poof!
  - adventured 7y ago
    I would call it saving it. He specifically acted against bad information and what he was supposed to do, which required bravery and critical thinking to avoid catastrophe. It was also potentially risking very bad consequences for himself, as his superiors easily could have put him in prison, disappeared him, or otherwise punished his life - even just out of spite - for what he did. He says it was a good thing that he was working that shift and he is right. The odds are extremely high that anybody else would make that phone call up the chain of command, and from there the odds of a nuclear response escalate rapidly.
montalbano 7y ago
Very inspiring, I am embarrassed not to have known of his story before today. It's worth also referencing Vasili Arkhipov, who also showed us the importance of individual action: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhi...
Symmetry 7y ago
Petrov day is going to be celebrated on the 26th, just a few days away. Whatever your nationality, whatever your profession please ask yourself: "Am I contributing to the destruction of the world? Is there something I could be doing to destroy the world less?" And then please act on that.
- avar 7y ago
  Or perhaps mainly consider your nationality. There's a relatively small minority of the world population who live in one of the two countries with arms sufficient to "destroy the world" (although some of the runners up could certainly make life worldwide more miserable). In practice people living in those countries have pretty much all the say in whether the world will get destroyed or not by choosing to vote for some nutcase in the next election. By comparison someone in <name pretty much any other country> has next to zero chance of moving the needle on potential world destruction.
  - acqq 7y ago
    On an uplifting note, we will all go together when we go (this year is the 60th anniversary of the song recording): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs
  - 1986 7y ago
    And yet, most of us living in those two countries actually have very little say in selecting the executive who's in charge of making that decision.
  - roenxi 7y ago
    The circle of people in those two countries who actually control the arsenal is very small in relation to the population. Diplomats from other countries probably have better access to them than any citizen of their own country. Nationality plays a role in who has the actual power but anyone can promote peace and have a real impact. Influential words and good ideas can come from anywhere.
    - 7y ago
jonstewart 7y ago
Needs "(2017)" in the title.
mLuby 7y ago
A hero of the Soviet Union, if not officially. Please add the publish date (September 18, 2017) to the title; it's called Hacker News not Hacker Archives.
- mieseratte 7y ago
  To be fair, HN isn’t strictly related to current events.
  - aiyodev 7y ago
    Yes it is. That’s what the word news means.
api 7y ago
Stuff like this makes me wonder about quantum immortality. Maybe we just happen to be in the timeline where we didn't nuke ourselves.
timwaagh 7y ago
And who programmed the system that detected the missiles? Was there ever a post-morten of this incident?

128 points by Anon84 7y ago

awestley 7y ago

Not everyone can say they saved the world (and it be true). RIP Mr. Petrov.

Stratoscope 7y ago
It's no exaggeration to say that Mr. Petrov did save the world. If he had passed his report up the chain of command, the Soviet Union could well have launched a retaliation strike. As Jeffrey Lewis is quoted in the article, "we should be talking about the great nuclear war of 1983 if any of us survived." RIP and thank you sir.
- human20190310 7y ago
  When the available evidence says "blow up the world", a gut-check is in order. Petrov checked himself before he wrecked himself and everyone else. Bravo!
wolph 7y ago
I wouldn't call it saving. It's more like not destroying. You would hope that for a world ending event they would need verification from multiple stations reporting at the same time though...
- dudhdhdhdhd 7y ago
  The danger of nuclear war is that there is no time to double check from other stations. Imagine, your radars see the incoming, by which time they’re already a third of the way. The SSNN are somewhere, close, about to launch. Those are close, so little time to react. Short range missiles in Germany are 5 minutes away from wiping your allies. In the meantime you have to pass this memo along, silo doors have to be opened, missiles warmed up, etc. Today it’s much more dangerous. Nukes are hundreds, not thousands of mi. away from Moscow, so Moscow has 5 minutes head up before it’s hit. We’re unlikely to have a Petrov double guess a radar full of clouds. Any bug in the Russians radar software that looks like clouds, and poof!
- adventured 7y ago
  I would call it saving it. He specifically acted against bad information and what he was supposed to do, which required bravery and critical thinking to avoid catastrophe. It was also potentially risking very bad consequences for himself, as his superiors easily could have put him in prison, disappeared him, or otherwise punished his life - even just out of spite - for what he did. He says it was a good thing that he was working that shift and he is right. The odds are extremely high that anybody else would make that phone call up the chain of command, and from there the odds of a nuclear response escalate rapidly.

montalbano 7y ago

Very inspiring, I am embarrassed not to have known of his story before today. It's worth also referencing Vasili Arkhipov, who also showed us the importance of individual action: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhi...

Symmetry 7y ago

Petrov day is going to be celebrated on the 26th, just a few days away. Whatever your nationality, whatever your profession please ask yourself: "Am I contributing to the destruction of the world? Is there something I could be doing to destroy the world less?" And then please act on that.

avar 7y ago
Or perhaps mainly consider your nationality. There's a relatively small minority of the world population who live in one of the two countries with arms sufficient to "destroy the world" (although some of the runners up could certainly make life worldwide more miserable). In practice people living in those countries have pretty much all the say in whether the world will get destroyed or not by choosing to vote for some nutcase in the next election. By comparison someone in <name pretty much any other country> has next to zero chance of moving the needle on potential world destruction.
- acqq 7y ago
  On an uplifting note, we will all go together when we go (this year is the 60th anniversary of the song recording): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs
- 1986 7y ago
  And yet, most of us living in those two countries actually have very little say in selecting the executive who's in charge of making that decision.
- roenxi 7y ago
  The circle of people in those two countries who actually control the arsenal is very small in relation to the population. Diplomats from other countries probably have better access to them than any citizen of their own country. Nationality plays a role in who has the actual power but anyone can promote peace and have a real impact. Influential words and good ideas can come from anywhere.
  - 7y ago

jonstewart 7y ago

Needs "(2017)" in the title.

mLuby 7y ago

A hero of the Soviet Union, if not officially. Please add the publish date (September 18, 2017) to the title; it's called Hacker News not Hacker Archives.

mieseratte 7y ago
To be fair, HN isn’t strictly related to current events.
- aiyodev 7y ago
  Yes it is. That’s what the word news means.

api 7y ago

Stuff like this makes me wonder about quantum immortality. Maybe we just happen to be in the timeline where we didn't nuke ourselves.

timwaagh 7y ago

And who programmed the system that detected the missiles? Was there ever a post-morten of this incident?