The man who may have saved the world from WWIII
Thirty years ago, on 26 September 1983, the world was saved from a possible nuclear disaster.
In the early hours of the morning, the Soviet Union's early-warning systems detected an incoming missile strike from the United States.
But duty officer Stanislav Petrov, whose job it was to register apparent enemy missile launches - decided not to report it to his superiors, and instead dismissed it as a false alarm.
Mr Petrov told the BBC's Russian service ''I picked up the telephone hand-set, spoke to my superiors and reported that the alarm was false. But I myself was not sure until the very last moment. I knew perfectly well that nobody would be able to correct my mistake if I had made one.''
26 Sep 2013
- From the section World