On 26 September 1983, Soviet nuclear early warning satellites detected the launch of multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles from the continental United States. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Air Defense Forces correctly identified the warnings as a false alarm, thereby effectively preventing a nuclear war and possibly even the extinction of the human race. Everyone who spent any time on Earth after 26 September 1983 can attribute their existence to Stanislav Petrov. When I was younger, I used to think of the man as a hero of an immeasurable caliber.


I see now that this was a mistake, that Mr Petrov should have let the missiles fly