How did Stanislav Petrov save the world from nuclear war in 1983?

He was neither punished nor praised because the authorities did not want the matter to get public. However, he received a medal for other achievements many years later.

I had no idea about this incident, my god the world would have been a very different place if this had actually happened, thank God it didn't

an unsung hero...

makes me wonder if it was an intentional "error" by someone trying to provoke a war. Glad this guy was smarter than the average bear.

wow!!! so scary to think it hinged on one man not following orders!!! there should be a holiday in his name!

Russians are human beings just like Americans. it's our governments that want us to hate each other. thank that man for his good judgment.

he went with his gut feeling

Goes to show you the difference one person can make. And the value of independent thinking and not blindly following orders.

lily 21, agree wholeheartedly with that! I had not heard of him at all or the possible nuclear war

and hats off to him

I remember this incident. it was reported in the US news, but of course at that time no one knew who to thank. If his name had been known I would like to think he would have received the Nobel peace prize.

BraidedLandscape6, He is a legend

MadMarcus1812, No, not thank a god, THANK THIS MAN. I hate it when people "thank a god" when it was OBVIOUSLY a real person who saved the day..."LITERALLY! 😬🤔😂

I happen through God's Grace to be a very intelligent and commensurately educated man, and I have never heard of this. But the world is a very humbling place, and it is a rare privilege to not only be in the company of such intelligent and educated people but people from such a disperate background. I have learned a great deal and am very thankful.

A real life “War Games”. Check it out. Still a classic. “Greetings Professor Falken, Shall we play a game?”

Sandyberry, is that from the flim war games ?

MadMarcus1812, What world? Mutual Assured Destruction would have taken us all out

Kudos to him! Whatever a kudo is.

MadMarcus1812, yeah, a non-existent one. 👻💨

Player #4250921, so very true!! So happy that he questioned authority!

MadMarcus1812, I learned of him in this game too—years after school. I forgot his name and looked up something about saving us from nuclear war and found that Arkhipov did a similar thing (preventing nuclear action)years after Petrov.

Here's a scary thought: what if Richard Nixon had been called to handle the Cuban Missile Crisis? Boom!

novashark, The Cuban Missile Crisis wasn't a false alarm. The world stood on the brink of nuclear war for almost 2 weeks.

MadMarcus1812, I had no idea, why don't they teach this in schools

Mary Kowalski, unfortunately one man's reasoning won't be enough for that.

Wow! I never knew about that. We may not have had a world today.

BraidedLandscape6, m

Thank God for him! 👏

I never heard this before. What an amazing demonstration of human reasoning and a frightening demonstration of technological failure that could’ve changed the face of civilization!

That’s amazing to learn. I’m on the chase at 5pm. ITV 1! Look out for me

who's going to save us from Putin! -

Part 4 Explanation As flotilla chief of staff and second-in-command of the diesel powered submarine B-59, Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain and the political officer's use of nuclear torpedoes against the United States Navy, a decision which required the agreement of all three senior officers. After his death, Arkhipov has been widely recognized as someone who had 'saved the world' with his actions on the B-59.

Part 3 Explanation Although Arkhipov was only second-in-command of the B-59, he was chief of staff of the entire submarine flotilla, which also included the B-4, the B-36 and the B-130.[8] According to author Edward Wilson, the reputation Arkhipov had gained from his courageous conduct in the previous year's K-19 incident played a big role in the debate to launch the torpedo.[6] Arkhipov eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface and await orders from Moscow. His persuasion effectively averted a nuclear war which would have likely ensued if the nuclear weapon was fired.[9] The B-59's batteries ran very low and its air conditioning failed, which caused extreme heat and generated high levels of carbon dioxide inside the submarine.[8] They were forced to surface amid the American pursuers and to return to the Soviet Union as a result.[2]

Part 2 Typically, Soviet submarines armed with the "Special Weapon" only required the captain and the political officer to authorize a nuclear launch, but unlike the other submarines in the flotilla, all three officers on board the B-59 had to unanimously agree to authorize the launch. This was due to Arkhipov's position as chief of staff of the flotilla; before launching the nuclear torpedo, captain Savitsky was thus also required to get Arkhipov's approval. The officers who needed to agree to the nuclear launch were captain Savitsky, political officer Ivan Semyonovich Maslennikov, and executive officer Arkhipov. An argument broke out between the three of them, with only Arkhipov against the launch.[7]

He is not the only one who prevented the nuclear war. Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov was a Soviet Naval officer credited with preventing a Soviet nuclear launch during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such an attack likely would have caused a major global thermonuclear response. On 27 October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of 11 United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph located the diesel-powered, nuclear-armed Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 near Cuba (The B-59 was one of four Foxtrot submarines sent by the USSR to the area around Cuba). Despite being in international waters, the United States Navy started dropping signaling depth charges, which intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. By then, there had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days, and although the B-59's crew had been picking up U.S. civilian radio broadcasts earlier on, the submarine was too deep to monitor any radio traffic, as it was busy trying to hide from its American pursuers. Those on board did not know whether war had broken out or not.[4][5] The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigoryevich Savitsky, decided that a war might already have started and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo.[6]

Bajan, so true also common sense

MadMarcus1812, "the world would have been a very different place if there'd have been a nuclear war!" .... totally. Probably yeah... I mean what if a nuclear bomb had hit a blockbusters or something!

I appreciate people who think for themselves and not do just do what others tell them to do. sometimes it's OK to disobey:)

hero. a true unsung hero.

I wonder what will happen with the Russians and the Irish fishermen in their upcoming wargames in Ireland's territorial waters. Go Ireland!