MILITARY PERSONNEL

Stanislav Petrov

1939 - 2017

Photo of Stanislav Petrov

Icon of person 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 played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident. On 26 September 1983, three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to four more. Petrov judged the reports to be a false alarm. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Stanislav Petrov has received more than 5,374,237 page views. His biography is available in 51 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 49 in 2019). Stanislav Petrov is the 65th most popular military personnel (down from 43rd in 2019), the 71st most popular biography from Russia (down from 58th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Russian Military Personnel.

Stanislav Petrov is most famous for being the man who prevented a nuclear war. In 1983, he was on duty at a Soviet nuclear early warning station when the system reported that the United States had launched five nuclear missiles. Petrov had the power to launch a retaliatory strike, but he decided to wait and see if the alarm was a false alarm. It turned out to be a false alarm, and he saved the world from a nuclear war.

Memorability Metrics

  • 5.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 72.53

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 51

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.06

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.54

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among MILITARY PERSONNELS

Among military personnels, Stanislav Petrov ranks 65 out of 2,058. Before him are Albrecht von Wallenstein, Miltiades, Seleucus I Nicator, Alfred Jodl, Otto Skorzeny, and Ferdinand Foch. After him are Fedor von Bock, Charles X Gustav of Sweden, Germanicus, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, and Walter Model.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1939, Stanislav Petrov ranks 7. Before him are Lee Harvey Oswald, Ali Khamenei, Tina Turner, Terence Hill, Ian McKellen, and Francis Ford Coppola. After him are Gro Harlem Brundtland, Amos Oz, Amanda Lear, Reuven Rivlin, Giovanni Falcone, and Giovanni Trapattoni. Among people deceased in 2017, Stanislav Petrov ranks 5. Before him are Charles Manson, Helmut Kohl, Michael I of Romania, and Roger Moore. After him are Gene Cernan, Zygmunt Bauman, Salvatore Riina, Ali Abdullah Saleh, David Rockefeller, Jalal Talabani, and Raymond Kopa.

Others Born in 1939

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Others Deceased in 2017

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Stanislav Petrov ranks 71 out of 3,761. Before him are Yaroslav the Wise (978), Vasily Zaitsev (1915), Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia (1904), Peter II of Russia (1715), Peter Carl Fabergé (1846), and Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861). After him are Wilhelm Wien (1864), Roman Jakobson (1896), Yevgeny Prigozhin (1961), Anna of Russia (1693), Paul Karrer (1889), and Andrei Rublev (1360).

Others born in Russia

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Among MILITARY PERSONNELS In Russia

Among military personnels born in Russia, Stanislav Petrov ranks 3. Before him are Mikhail Kutuzov (1745), and Vasily Zaitsev (1915). After him are Yevgeny Prigozhin (1961), Alexander Suvorov (1730), Ivan Konev (1897), Mikhail Tukhachevsky (1893), Vasily Chuikov (1900), Pyotr Bagration (1765), Aleksandr Vasilevsky (1895), Semyon Budyonny (1883), and Felix Steiner (1896).

Russian born Military Personnels

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