Photo: A young Stanislav Petrov in his air defence uniform.
Man and machine: Tony D’Souza on a human intervention
‘He paused for a while to think.’
by Tony D’Souza
27th March 2026
The evening of 26 September 1983 was unusually cold. Stanislav Petrov pulled on his greatcoat and left for the Serpukhov-15 base. He was duty officer on an early-warning system designed to detect nuclear missiles.
