Stanislav Petrov

Biography

Stanislav Petrov was a Russian lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces born in 1939 near Vladivostok. On September 26, 1983, he made a decision that prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the US and its NATO allies by correctly judging a false alarm from the Oko nuclear early-warning system. His actions may have saved the world from a large-scale nuclear war.