(no subject)

[felis_ultharus]

metawidget posted this, and I'd never heard the story before.

The full story is here, but the gist of it that Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov had to make a decision on whether or not to destroy the world. He was getting false readings that the Americans were launching missiles at Russia.

He chose to assume it was computer error, rather than inform his superiors of a possible attack as he was supposed to -- knowing that those superiors would probably, in turn, have launched a retaliatory attack that would have ended in all-out nuclear war. He was interrogated for not following procedure, and left the military a few months later.

His cool head probably saved all life as we know it. As a reward, is currently living in poverty in the town of Fryazino, on a pension equivalent to $200 American a month.

Anyway, there's a movement afoot to call September 26 "Petrov Day." There are probably few other individuals more deserving of a day in their honour.

Comments

[rougemacabre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's quite an amazing story. I read it a few weeks ago. He's the unsung hero of our time and not only is he not being valued in our day, he probably won't end up in the history books either.

[em-fish.livejournal.com]

Well then I guess it's up to academic-types like yourself to change that. :p

[rougemacabre.livejournal.com]

Hmm, guess I'll have to find a way to tie him into my video game project. :-P

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Not entirely sure what the connection is, but if it results in me meeting Amano, I'm prepared to run with it ^_^

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Hopefully ^_^

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

He might -- if enough people become aware. Some things only get written back millennia after the fact. I hope, because in the original linked article, the author pointed out how strange it ultimately is that the man who chose not to end all life as we know it is unknown, while everyone knows who Paris Hilton is.

In university, I read an alternate version of the story of the Vandals sacking Rome, this one written from primary documents of the time. In that version , the Vandals were refugees, promised land in exchange for military service, and then mistreated (forced to eat rotten food, forced to sell their children into slavery, etc.) After Rome went back on its promises a second time, they sacked the city out of sheer desperation.

Old textbooks used to take it as a given that the Vandals were simple villains of history, who grabbed an opportunity when they saw it.

I think of this a lot, as I'm working on trying to resurrect queer history from the original records. And maybe in the future, people like Petrov will be read about and understood, and only the most in-depth historical scholars of the period will have heard of Paris Hilton (and then only in the context of media studies).

[infinitecomplex.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this - I hadn't heard the story before, and am all in favour of a Petrov Day!

Perhaps we should have our own Petrov celebrations next year...

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I agree -- we ought to.

though the poor guy would probably be happy with a decent pension (he did get a $1000 reward once, and hopefully his fortunes will change when a movie about him comes out next year).