Stanislav Petrov prevented a nuclear holocaust. Literally. Nuclear Save.
His job was to detect any nuclear attack coming from the US. He had helped install the facility which housed the Soviet Early Warning System named Oko translated as Eye. The bunker situated south of Moscow began a series of warnings that a nuclear weapons strike had been deployed. He was at the controls on the night of September 26th 1983 when it happened.

It was in the Cold War period when a few weeks earlier a Soviet jet had intercepted and shot down by mistake a civilian airliner killing everyone on board. Including a US Congressman and 60 Americans. Ronald Reagan was in charge at the White House. Reagan had issued plans for the European Missile Defense System which Russia saw as a major threat.

So both sides were hyper alert ready for the others next move. Petrov thought the chances of the warning being a genuine nuclear strike were 50/50. He didn’t want to be the person responsible for starting a Third World War. In fact the early warning system had been triggered by the reflection of the sun.
So he didn’t give the advice to his commanders to retaliate.
Nuclear Save

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