Monday, February 18, 2013

Soviet Officer Recognized For His Role In Preventing Nuclear War In 1983

Soviet Officer Awarded Prize for Preventing Nuclear War. © RIA Novosti. Sergej Pirogov

Soviet Officer Awarded Prize for Preventing Nuclear War -- RIA Novosti

DRESDEN, February 17 (RIA Novosti) – 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 awarding ceremony, which marks the anniversary of the Dresden bombing in 1945, was held in the Dresden Opera Theatre (the Semperoper).

One of the organizers, Director General of Friends of Dresden Deutschland, Heidrun Hannusch, said Petrov had "averted a third world war" and his heroic deed will go down in history as one of the most significant events of the past few decades that contributed to the preservation of peace.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is wrote about him a few months ago ....

.... Life is always very strange. A retired officer who now lives the simple life of a pensioner .... but .... his 15 minutes of fame ended up saving hundreds of millions (if not billions) of lives. His name is only known by a few, but the world owes him a debt a gratitude that will be remembered for all time.

For more info on the incident that could have plunged the world into nuclear war, go here.

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