Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet military officer who is widely credited with helping prevent a nuclear war with the US, has died aged 77, his son said on Tuesday.
Petrov, whose extraordinary story was told in a documentary titled ‘The Man Who Saved the World’, received several international awards, was honoured at the United Nations and met Hollywood superstars such as Robert De Niro and Matt Damon.Yet Petrov lived in a small town outside Moscow and died in relative obscurity on May 19. His death making headlines in Russia and abroad only months later when a German friend wrote a blog post about his death.
In September 1983, Petrov was an officer on duty at a secret command centre south of Moscow when an alarm went off signalling that the US had launched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).