# Thank you, Stanislav Petrov **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 27, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292 "2006-09-27T00:29:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/1 "2006-09-27T00:29:09Z")
23 years ago today, on September 26, 1983, [Stanislav Petrov](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) was monitoring the Soviet satellite early warning network, and saw something that looked very much like a few American missiles coming in. He trusted his intuition that it was a false alarm and not an American nuclear attack, and as a result we are all here today. Thank you, Stanislav Petrov. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/2 "2006-09-27T01:05:13Z")
Stanislav, my hat is very very tipped to you. Бог благословляет. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/3 "2006-09-27T01:45:47Z")
Betcha he’s got a wicked sexy accent, too. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/4 "2006-09-27T03:19:42Z")
I was 8 years old and lived about 20 miles from Washington DC then. I certainly wouldn’t be here now if he hadn’t done what he did. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/5 "2006-09-27T03:33:06Z")
I was 9 years old in Montgomery, Alabama, which sounds as if it would be relatively safe. However, Montgomery houses Maxwell Air Force Base, which contains the Air War College, and at the time, contained most of the ballistic computers that would plot the paths of American ICBM’s in the case of nuclear conflict. We were always told by the CO at Maxwell that Montgomery was #5 on the Soviets’ target priority list. Thus, I also owe my life to (former) Comrade Petrov. Thank you for your good sense and iron will. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/6 "2006-09-27T11:08:53Z")
That story always sends chilld down my spine. I am glad the word eventually got out and he got honored at least a few times way. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/7 "2006-09-27T11:18:31Z")
At the time I lived 10 miles from Missile Command in the UK. I would be gaseous if it weren’t for him. Spazibo, Komrad Petrov. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/8 "2006-09-27T12:36:54Z")
I lived near Strategic Air Command HQ at the time. Many thanks, Mr. Petrov. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/9 "2006-09-27T12:48:45Z")
Why you should not completely take out the human factor… whether or not Petrov could really have all by his own self started or stopped it, for all our much-maligned unpredictability and fallibility you do want someone, somewhere, who can pause to say to himself, _“this can’t be right…”_ ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/10 "2017-09-18T17:09:42Z")
New York Times [reports](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/world/europe/stanislav-petrov-nuclear-war-dead.html)that Stanislav Petrov died at the age of 77 on May 19 in Fryazino, a Moscow suburb, of pneumonia. (The news of his passing wasn’t reported initially, hence the delay.) (Previously noted [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20472878&postcount=1662) on the Celebrity Death Pool thread as of 12 Sep 2017, but I figured I’d note it here in the content-relevant thread.) ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/11 "2017-09-18T17:46:27Z")
If I may pick a nit - 34 years ago. Or your fingers were offset slightly to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/12 "2017-09-18T17:51:37Z")
I think you will find that 2006-1983 is 23, not 34. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/13 "2017-09-18T18:46:23Z")
In 1983 I lived miles from a Navy Supply base and not that far from NYC. I would have gone fast at least if the exchange had happened. He did his job smartly and not blindly and thus really may have saved the world. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/14 "2017-09-18T19:11:37Z")
This incident is way overblown. For one, it wasn’t five missiles at once. It was a single missile and then later in the same night 4 more after enough time had passed to verify the first was a false alarm. From a system that had been operational for less than a year and with no corroboration from any other system. It was obviously a false alarm and there’s no way his superiors would have launched a strike. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/15 "2017-09-18T19:46:57Z")
> [@treis](#): > > This incident is way overblown. For one, it wasn’t five missiles at once. It was a single missile and then later in the same night 4 more after enough time had passed to verify the first was a false alarm. From a system that had been operational for less than a year and with no corroboration from any other system. It was obviously a false alarm and there’s no way his superiors would have launched a strike. I will admit to not being well versed in the event. But can you backup your post? ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/16 "2017-09-18T20:29:11Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I will admit to not being well versed in the event. But can you backup your post? Here is wikipedia’s take: > [@](#): > > Shortly after midnight, the bunker’s computers reported that one intercontinental ballistic missile was heading toward the Soviet Union from the United States. Petrov considered the detection a computer error, since a first-strike nuclear attack by the United States was likely to involve hundreds of simultaneous missile launches in order to disable any Soviet means of a counterattack. Furthermore, the satellite system’s reliability had been questioned in the past.[11] Petrov dismissed the warning as a false alarm, though accounts of the event differ as to whether he notified his superiors[10] or not[7][full citation needed] after he concluded that the computer detections were false and that no missile had been launched. Petrov’s suspicion that the warning system was malfunctioning was confirmed when no missile in fact arrived. Later, the computers identified four additional missiles in the air, all directed towards the Soviet Union. Petrov suspected that the computer system was malfunctioning again, despite having no direct means to confirm this. > **[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident)** > > On 26 September 1983, during the Cold War, the Soviet nuclear early warning system Oko reported the launch of one intercontinental ballistic missile with four more missiles behind it, from the United States. These missile attack warnings were suspected to be false alarms by Stanislav Petrov, an engineer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces on duty at the command center of the early-warning system. He decided to wait for corroborating evidence—of which none arrived—rather than immediately relaying th... ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/17 "2017-09-18T23:01:06Z")
Thank You ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/18 "2017-09-18T23:12:35Z")
We are wery, wery tenkful. I toast to you wiss Wodka! ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/19 "2017-09-18T23:25:24Z")
There are times, when Global Thermonuclear War is the proper solution to so many issues. The '80s were one of those times. I am not at all sure that this man was some kind of hero. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292/20 "2017-09-20T23:20:02Z")
I showed my mother his picture the other day and the related story…I don’t think she quite understood why there was a tear in my eye when I did so… PS. I am very pro nuke and MAD and blah blah blah…but this was a case were a “common” man with common sense probably literally saved the day…and his pic looks like any old geezer that might now live next to me… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-stanislav-petrov/374292.md?page=2)