3rd World War
Jan 27
The Story About the Man That Prevented World War 3
How did a Russian failure almost cause a third world war?
Stanislav Petrov, perhaps that name doesn’t ring a bell immediately to most of us. However, he was quite important for the course of our history because we’re talking about the person who prevented a Third World War.
Who Is Stanislav Petrov?
Petrov was born on the 7th of September in 1939 in the Russian city of Vladivostok. He was born as the son of a World War II soldier, and his mother was a nurse.¹
After his graduation in 1972, he became an employee of the Soviet Air Defence Forces.⁵ His job was to monitor the radar that would detect possible missile attacks from Nato countries.⁶
The Cold War
To understand why this man would have prevented a Third World War, we need to look at the Cold War⁴, which is the period this is taking place in.
The Cold War was a period of armed peace between the communist and capitalist worlds in the second half of the 20th century.
The United States led the capitalist Western bloc.
The communists were mainly led by the Soviet Union or were allied with communist China. For the West, the term “first world” was also used, while the communist world was the “second world.”
Countries that did not want to belong to either the capitalist or the communist bloc called themselves Non-Aligned Countries. They formed the “third world,” a term that is also used for developing countries.
The Missile Incident
On the 26th of September, 1983, the Cold War raged in all its glory, and Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov is in his post.
He was ordered to keep a close eye on his screens that he needs to constantly check to see if any missile attacks are coming from the United States.
His job was to tell his supervisors the moment he notices something strange, and they decide what to do next (also known as push the red button to launch their missiles as well).
As he is closely watching the monitors, he suddenly notices five red dots popping up on the screen, and these indicate five nuclear missiles heading towards them. He isn’t so sure about telling his supervisors, and he doubts the indication.
He also reminds himself of the fact that his system isn’t completely reliable, but the most important question going through his head was: “Should I warn the supervisors.”
Petrov eventually decides not to warn his supervisors and tells them it was a false alarm.
His assessment turns out to be correct: the warning system had failed. The US was not attacking at that point. The Russians kept their nuclear weapons at home.
A famous quote of Petrov is:
“I refused to be guilty of starting World War III.”
— Stanislav Petrov
The Cover-up of This Story
For a long time, this story has been covered up by the Soviets/Russians because this isn’t just a story about a hero who prevented a Third World War but also a story about the failure of a Russian/Soviet system.
The Russians don’t like to talk about their weaknesses and failures, especially when it’s about their military forces.
Eventually, his story reached the broad public and Petrov immediately became a hero.
In 2014, Petrov received the Dresden Award for preventing a Third World War before he died in 2017.³
References.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
2. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
3. https://www.scientias.nl/vergeten-helden-stanislav-petrov-man-derde-wereldoorlog-voorkwam/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War
posted by Aloyzio Achutti at 9:25 PM
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