Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

rt.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 147 posts

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#71

Post by teel »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #38
4WIW wrote: post #25

It may be that our biggest collective luck was that the alarm happened at the time subcolonel Petrov was on duty. He was an analyst, maybe even chief analyst of the unit, he authored the playbook for the officers on duty; being on duty wasn't his main job (source: https://cont.ws/@adviser095/717098 ), he would go on duty from time to time. Due to his knowledge of the early warning system he was more likely to cast do…

I wonder if there are other, still classified instances where the weapon has almost been launched. If lt. colonel Petrov was aware of the limitations of the early warning system then there must have been other faults as well - I bet there have been problems with the early warning system on both sides...

The Okinawa missiles of October was a story that looked like a close call (to me at least!). It was on HN couple of years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10452983

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#72

Post by badosu »

random_upvoter wrote: post #62

As a religious person it is my belief that only divine protection saved us from nuclear annihilation during that era. If you think about the primitive state of that technology, the amount of brutal, stupid men that walked around in the military and the number of close calls, you really have to wonder how it did not happen.

> the primitive state of that technology, the amount of brutal, stupid men that walked around in the military and the number of close calls

History (and present) is filled with occasions where you can use that same quote. I agree with the luck of not having bombed ourselves yet though.

The way I rationalize it is that the human behaviour is extremely complex and it's very difficult to try and understand the reasons why some things happen (or do not happen), perhaps there's a subtlety that is not visible for most people unrelated with the powers that be.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#73

Post by tgb »

Twisell wrote: post #67
Already__Taken wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you would use the phrase the Doctor Who show. As The wasn't capitalized is how I would read it.

So let's get to the bottom of this as english is not my mother tong and I will gladly learn new tricks. Does that mean that my sentence (with correction) is wrong because "the" is mandatory in this context?

No, it's perfect as is. Eg: Wikipedia's use of "Br'er Rabbit stories" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#74

Post by [deleted] »

Twisell wrote: post #67
Already__Taken wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you would use the phrase the Doctor Who show. As The wasn't capitalized is how I would read it.

So let's get to the bottom of this as english is not my mother tong and I will gladly learn new tricks. Does that mean that my sentence (with correction) is wrong because "the" is mandatory in this context?

[deleted]

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#75

Post by aswanson »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #38
4WIW wrote: post #25

It may be that our biggest collective luck was that the alarm happened at the time subcolonel Petrov was on duty. He was an analyst, maybe even chief analyst of the unit, he authored the playbook for the officers on duty; being on duty wasn't his main job (source: https://cont.ws/@adviser095/717098 ), he would go on duty from time to time. Due to his knowledge of the early warning system he was more likely to cast do…

I wonder if there are other, still classified instances where the weapon has almost been launched. If lt. colonel Petrov was aware of the limitations of the early warning system then there must have been other faults as well - I bet there have been problems with the early warning system on both sides...

There was an incident in 1979 where a US military center thought Russia was firing.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#76

Post by aswanson »

jimrandomh wrote: post #14

This is tragic. The anniversary of the crisis Petrov saved us from is coming up soon, on September 26th. There's a ritual/ceremony that I and some others have been observing yearly on that day, which I recently put online at http://petrovday.com/ , which talks about that (and the world's other close calls, and historical context).

That's a great idea, awareness needs to be spread about how lucky we are.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#77

Post by staticelf »

random_upvoter wrote: post #62

As a religious person it is my belief that only divine protection saved us from nuclear annihilation during that era. If you think about the primitive state of that technology, the amount of brutal, stupid men that walked around in the military and the number of close calls, you really have to wonder how it did not happen.

Really respectful to take away his heroic act and give credit to a fantasy-figure. /s

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#78

Post by SilverSlash »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #39
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there are other, still classified instances where the weapon has almost been launched. If lt. colonel Petrov was aware of the limitations of the early warning system then there must have been other faults as well - I bet there have been problems with the early warning system on both sides...

Ever hear of the bomb the US accidentally dropped on the mainland? When they recovered it, they discovered the bomb had armed itself and that all the safety mechanisms failed except one.

What the hell?! How many times are we going to be lucky before something goes very wrong. I hope they are a lot more careful now, and I mean all sides.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#79

Post by Allower »

0xbear wrote: post #70
majewsky wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1) The reported starts (5 in total) happened from a single base in the US which didn't make sense from the military point of view: the US would have put themselves at a grave disadvantage by sending just a few missiles There was an interview with Petrov (in the 90s or 00s) when he spoke about this point, and the interviewer said that in 1983, the US plans for a preemptive strike started with a "beheading strike", i…

This plan strikes me as idiotic TBH. The Kremlin is situated smack dab in the center of the most populous city in Russia, Moscow. You can’t take out just the Kremlin without taking out millions of people in the process. And even if you could, the USSR would have no choice but to respond. It’s like someone nuked the White House. Rockets would be flying within minutes. Nowadays there’s an automated system in place that…

Since when does the US care about civilian casualties? Particularly soviet civilians

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#80

Post by sulam »

rl3 wrote: post #64
majewsky wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1) The reported starts (5 in total) happened from a single base in the US which didn't make sense from the military point of view: the US would have put themselves at a grave disadvantage by sending just a few missiles There was an interview with Petrov (in the 90s or 00s) when he spoke about this point, and the interviewer said that in 1983, the US plans for a preemptive strike started with a "beheading strike", i…

One would think proper first strikes would be compromised of SLBMs. Then again, it's not a proper Cold War strategic game theory play unless you're banking on your enemy to hesitate due to the unusual nature of the attack. SLBMs scream first strike, while a few birds out of many launching from farm country in the central United States in sequential fashion, not so much. That said, I'm not sure what would have consitu…

s/compromised/comprised/
Post reply on HN