Stanislav Petrov

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Russian ????????? ?????????? ?????? born c 1939 is a retired lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces On September 26 1983 he was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear earlywarning system when the system reported that a missile was being launched from the United States Petrov judged the report to be a false alarm and his decision is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies that could have resulted in largescale nuclear war Investigation later confirmed that the satellite warning system had malfunctioned