The day Stanislav Petrov saved the world from the apocalypse – level 3

26-09-1983

Stanislav Petrov saved the world in 1983.

On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov was on duty monitoring the Soviet Union’s satellite system, which was designed to detect incoming nuclear missiles from the United States. At one moment, the satellite system incorrectly detected the launch of five missiles from the United States.

Despite the high-pressure situation, Petrov used his intuition and judgment to determine that the warning was likely a false alarm. He reasoned that if the US were to launch a nuclear strike, it would involve a much larger number of missiles, rather than just five.

Instead of reporting the alarm to his boss, Petrov decided to report it as a system malfunction.

If he had reported that the missiles were coming, a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union could have started. His decision saved the world from a potential nuclear apocalypse.

Difficult words: missile (a rocket which can explode), launch (a start), determine (to say what is true), likely (probably).

"What factors do you think influenced Stanislav Petrov's decision to report the missile detection as a system malfunction instead of a real threat?"

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