What lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces correctly identified a false alarm on 26 September 1983
Stanislav Petrov Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (Russian: Станисла́в Евгра́фович Петро́в ; 7 September 1939 – 19 May 2017) was a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who became known as "the man who single-handedly saved the world from nuclear war" for his role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident.
Kosmos 1701 Kosmos 1701 (Russian: Космос 1701 meaning "Cosmos 1701") is a Soviet US-K missile early warning satellite which was launched in 1985 as part of the Soviet military's Oko programme. The satellite is designed to identify missile launches using optical telescopes and infrared sensors.