In fact, according to Peter Anthony, a Danish filmmaker who directed When Russia's nuclear early-warning system wrongly detected incoming US missiles, Petrov judged it was a false alarmThere are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughtsThere are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughtsPetrov said most of his comrades would probably have confirmed the approaching missiles rather than questioned the alerts from the computerAre you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate?Sir Edward du Cann, ex-politician who helped elect Margaret ThatcherThe colonel’s brush with history came six months after US President Ronald Reagan christened the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” and just three weeks after Korean Air Lines Flight 007 wandered into Soviet airspace and was shot down, deteriorating US-Soviet relations even further.The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Early in the morning of 26 September, alarms went off and computers sent signals that a US Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile had been launched from an American base. “I had a funny feeling in my gut,” he “We were in a state of shock,” Petrov recalled. Although they would not have registered activity until several minutes after any launch, Soviet ground-based radar installations that can track missiles rising above the horizon did not detect an attack. Reliant almost entirely on a state pension, he was reduced at one point to growing potatoes outside his apartment block to feed his family. Stanislav Petrov, who has died aged 77, was a largely unsung hero of the cold war, whose calm common sense saved the world from nuclear war. US bombers flew directly towards Soviet airspace, peeling off only at the last moment, sometimes several times a week.1983 a Soviet fighter plane shot down a Korean Air The Soviet leadership feared Washington was preparing an all-out sneak attack. He is survived by Dmitri, and a daughter, Yelena.Petrov was born near Vladivostok in the Soviet far east. Stanislav Petrov passed away. The country began readying its expansive nuclear arsenal, and the West seemed primed to escalate its own efforts when an intelligence official in the US Air Force, Leonard Perroots, chose – like Petrov – not to respond to the apparent provocation. Start your Independent Premium subscription today.Create a commenting name to join the debateSoviet officer who 'saved the world' by averting nuclear war diesYet while Perroots was lauded at the time and went on to direct the Defence Intelligence Agency, Petrov became a pariah in the Soviet military, a scapegoat for what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity in the early-warning system’s software: instead of identifying a group of missiles, the software had spotted the sun’s reflection off the top of clouds.Petrov, an official with Russia’s early-warning missile system, was charged with determining whether the United States had opened intercontinental fire on the Soviet Union. And American missiles, apparently minutes from impact, seemed to vanish into the air.When Nato held a military training exercise known as Able Archer 83 that November, Soviet officials interpreted Western troop movements as preparations for a pre-emptive strike. He eventually retired from the military to care for her during her treatment for brain cancer. Petrov was born on 7 September 1939 near Vladivostok. Clandestine naval operations stealthily accessed waters near the Barents, Norwegian, Black and Baltic seas, demonstrating how close Nato ships could get to critical Soviet bases. Jake LaMotta: world middleweight boxing champion and 'Raging Bull'Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later?