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Person

Stanislav Petrov

A man in a military uniform with red star insignia on his cap and shoulder patches stands against a dark background.

Soviet lieutenant colonel, 1939–2017. On 26 September 1983 he was the duty officer at the Serpukhov-15 early-warning bunker outside Moscow when satellite systems reported five incoming American intercontinental ballistic missiles. Suspecting a malfunction in the new Oko satellites, he declined to forward the alert up the chain. The signal was indeed a glitch caused by sunlight reflecting off high-altitude clouds. He was neither punished nor rewarded; the incident remained classified for a decade.

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