Stanislav Petrov- the man that saved us from World War 3

On a visit to a cold war bunker in York, the guide told us of many dignitaries that had visited, military people from US, Europe and beyond. He found out from these people that the bunker was only ever prepared twice- once during the cuba crisis and once in the 80s. At this point, the military go quiet but there was a major incidence during the 80s that brought us close to World War 3.

Last night, a program 1983 the brink of apocalypse explained how various incidences led to very nearly world war 3:
- Early in 1983, Regan had inflamed the Soviets by calling them an evil empire.
- The excuse for the US invasion had been made, the Soviets had shot down a Korean airliner.
- So when in 1983, NATO decided to go ahead with a huge war game Operation Able Archer the Soviets were convinced that like the Nazis 50 years earlier that this was pretense for an invasion.
Had Ronald Regan actually gone to Germany to pretend to press the button then this would have been WW3. However, I'd like to talk about Stanislav Petrov who at the height of this tension was watching the screens beaming messages from the USSR satellites that were watching the US bunkers. The satellites reported a US missile launch, then another and then another. He believed that the satellite technology was wrong and ignored the flashing lights telling him that there were 3 launches - he expected many many more launches in a short time. In the end he was proved right. - it was reflections from the sun. He literally saved millions of lives as had he reported this to the seniors, this would have started the nuclear war.

The real scary thing is that this whole incidence brought us so close to nuclear war and no-one knew about it.

reply to post by templar knight


I saw a Military Channel show about the Able Archer war games. It was pretty scary seeing how close things came to really escalating.

It might have been one of the reasons why Gorby decided to end the Cold War. It was just too dangerous for the world and civilisation. Is the world any safer today? No. If anything I thing we are closer to nuking ourselves then ever before.

templar knight
On a visit to a cold war bunker in York, the guide told us of many dignitaries that had visited, military people from US, Europe and beyond. He found out from these people that the bunker was only ever prepared twice- once during the cuba crisis and once in the 80s. At this point, the military go quiet but there was a major incidence during the 80s that brought us close to World War 3.

Last night, a program 1983 the brink of apocalypse explained how various incidences led to very nearly world war 3:
- Early in 1983, Regan had inflamed the Soviets by calling them an evil empire.
- The excuse for the US invasion had been made, the Soviets had shot down a Korean airliner.
- So when in 1983, NATO decided to go ahead with a huge war game Operation Able Archer the Soviets were convinced that like the Nazis 50 years earlier that this was pretense for an invasion.
Had Ronald Regan actually gone to Germany to pretend to press the button then this would have been WW3. However, I'd like to talk about Stanislav Petrov who at the height of this tension was watching the screens beaming messages from the USSR satellites that were watching the US bunkers. The satellites reported a US missile launch, then another and then another. He believed that the satellite technology was wrong and ignored the flashing lights telling him that there were 3 launches - he expected many many more launches in a short time. In the end he was proved right. - it was reflections from the sun. He literally saved millions of lives as had he reported this to the seniors, this would have started the nuclear war.

The real scary thing is that this whole incidence brought us so close to nuclear war and no-one knew about it.

Great find.... Sadly only one of many times we came close and the world never knew it. It happened more than once regarding submarines, lol. Then let us start talking about how many nukes echo side lost during cold war. Why have most soviet scientists not really cared about tonguska area where all the trees were downed in a circle. They knew it was a bomb accident lol.

Both sides lost allot of nukes, well lost not right word, they know what happened to almost all lol. One landed in a tree in North Carolina and four of the five fuses burned through. The bomb almost blew up lol. The second one fell fifty meters in a marsh there and it is still there lol.....

Good job.

The Bot

reply to post by templar knight


Great topic.

I saw a movie "Phantom" with Ed Harris, David Duchovny & Wiliam Fichtner about a planned Soviet "False Flag" operation during the cold war.

Supposedly based on fact, it is the story of the last voyage of the V67 desiel submarine (I love submarine movies for some reason). Here's a link to the full synopsis (with spoilers) at IMDB:

www.imdb.com...

Off topic but in the parking lot and it's a good movie.

reply to post by templar knight


I've heard of this but never memorized his name (his name in Russian is Станисла́в Евгра́фович Петро́в)

Goddess bless Stanislav Petrov. For what he did, for the shear enormity of his contribution to the human race, his place in history should be both secure and honored. Statues, songs, peace awards, and all manner of celebratory events on his birthday could applaud this man of the people, who showed us what trust and common sense can accomplish.

His Wikipedia page:

en.wikipedia.org...

And here's another Russian, Vasili Arkhipov, who made a singular decision which averted nuclear war, this time during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was among three officers of a submarine who had to agree to launch a nuke, and he was the only one arguing "nyet nyet".

Arkhipov's Wikipedia page:

en.wikipedia.org...

Vasili Arkhipov, our hero:

Anyone who is painted as hero in the west for something, is automatically very dubious in his heroism ...
The west does not make movie about heroes, of the soviet union ever!
They typically prefer charachters such as Khodorkovky or Berezovsky, until they become bigger than they can handle....