Soviet Officer Awarded Prize for Preventing Nuclear War

A retired Soviet lieutenant colonel whose self-control prevented a nuclear war from being triggered by a long-classified accident in 1983 was honored with a German anti-war prize on Sunday. Stanislav Petrov, 73, won the fourth Dresden-Preis (Dresden Prize), which comes complete with a check for 25,000 euro ($33,000). The officer served at a command center of the Soviet nuclear early-warning system outside Moscow, which reported the launch of five nuclear missiles from US territory on Sept. 26, 1983. Petrov’s duty was to report the incoming missiles to his superiors, who were likely to order a snap retaliatory strike. However, he chose to ignore the report, ruling it an equipment malfunction and reckoning five missiles insufficient for a proper war. Later an investigation proved the warning to be a false report by a monitoring satellite confused by sunlight reflecting off high-altitude clouds. Petrov was neither promoted nor disciplined and continued his service, while the story remained classified until 1998.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130217/179529402/Soviet-Officer-Awarded-Prize-for-Preventing-Nuclear-War.html