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This Man is the Reason the World Didn’t End | Tales From the Bottle

Qxir | August 25, 2025



As billions went about their day in blissful ignorance, one man made sure it wasn’t their last.

“Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (7 September 1939 – 19 May 2017) was a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident. On 26 September 1983, three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to five more. Petrov judged the reports to be a false alarm, and his decision to disobey orders, against Soviet military protocol, is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies that could have resulted in the Third World War and a large-scale nuclear war which could have wiped out half of the population of the countries involved. An investigation later confirmed that the Soviet satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned. Because of this incident, Petrov is often credited as having “saved the world”.”

More on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

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Written by Qxir

Comments

This post currently has 40 comments.

  1. @Qxir

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    D'oh – the picture used at 1:18 is Vasily Arkhipov – another Soviet credited with avoiding nuclear devastation during the Cuban missile crisis (but that's a story for another time).
    7:59 – this is the picture of Stanislav I should have used throughout 🙂

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  6. @actiongabby

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    1:22 Okay, I'm this far in the video and I gotta say (hopefully I don't have to delete this comment), I was so VERY disappointed back when I find out the band "Flock of Seagulls" didn't take their name from this story.

    Oooh, it was clouds.

  11. @Secret_Takodachi

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    It isn't "shoot your enemy before they shoot you"
    It's "shoot your enemy's entire country before they can say, "shoot…. and put safeguards in place to make sure your gun still shoots even if your enemy manages to shoot first."

    You gotta respect that level of hate.
    Like pulling the pin on a hand grenade in a fist fight.

    That's dedication to the grudge!

  14. @IamMagPie

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    Russian tech was so bad that clouds looked like missiles? How fast do missiles move? How fast do clouds move? Not only did they permanently damage life with their mistake at Chernobyl, but they almost destroy the world as well…

  22. @Betterhose

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    I know these men were trained and instructed to retaliate in case of a nuclear strike but what's the point?

    If I was the officer in command of the nuclear weapons or of some sort of ICBM early warning system, I would refuse to retaliate (or warn the high command of incoming missiles). What are they gonna do? Have me court-martialed after the bombs hit? Probably not.

    I would rather let my enemy live than to end all of humanity.

    You're not going to save any of your own people by launching your ICBMs. You only get to chose if you want to add to the death count or not.

    I'd report a "false alarm", light myself a cigarette, pour myself a fine whiskey/vodka, lean back in my chair and watch the approaching blinking dots on the radar. Preferably while listening to "Orange Colored Sky".

  24. @danko6582

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    "I inew perfectly well that nobody would be able to correct my mistake if I had made one". The world was saved by Soviet logic, not moral fortitude. He'd cop the blame for a false positive report, and was a gonner anyway if it was a false negative.

  26. @RobinGraves-x3g

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    3:53 “the other guy is about to end the world, meaning he’ll beat me to the privilege”

    no one’s forcing you to kill millions, if they strike first then lay down and die in the name of peace and dignity or you were never human to begin with

    If everyone held this worldview we’d be just fine. If everyone believed they needed to race to be the one responsible for the worst thing to happen in human history, there would be no human history long enough to get anywhere near advancing to atomic bombs

  28. @DownhillAllTheWay

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    At 8:10 – "the thresat of nuclear war is not quite as present as it was back then" – but Putin started the Ukraine war by very publicly making his nuclear weapons available for use, and he has made several nuclear threats since then. However, if Ukraine had a nuclear weapon, I believe Putin would see that as a significant deterrent. If they were to launch an un-armed missile, the Russians would see that as a test for something more serious. Remember how N. Korea did it? They were told not to, but they went ahead with their test programme, and everyone takes them seriously now.

  31. @Kel-d7v

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    "We who grew up strong and proud
    "Under the shadow of a mushroom cloud."
    "Voices can be heard screamin louder and louder, 'What the hell we fighting for!?!' "
    — Queen "Hammer To Fall"

  32. @Thorgnor

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    My dad retired from the USAF in 1986 from March AFB (later renamed Eaker AFB). During his last years of active duty, there was a facility a few miles off base that was once a missile station. I slept good knowing that not only was nuclear war a possibility, but that the likelihood of a Soviet missile landing in the back yard in the early stages was also a likelihood. Shortly after his retirement the base was decommissioned and the ANG used it as a fueling outpost.

  36. @christopherbrian1664

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    I'm so sick of the global warming bullshit. It isn't real people. That's why they said the world would be underwater by 2008 in the seventies and then literally nothing happened. It's a lie used to tax and implement global agendas that make corporations MOONNNNEEEYY. That's all it is. Money. Wake up.

  40. @vipermark7

    August 25, 2025 at 10:29 am

    I like your little almost apology at the beginning for mispronouncing nuclear and Maryland.
    I’m afraid the worst one was your stone of destiny video where you kept pronouncing “scone” as though it rhymes with “stone”. And the pastry treat, also spelled “scone” is pronounced differently from the other two.
    Happy days.

Comments are closed.

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