The nuclear disaster averted by Soviet Colonel Petrov, the man who saved the world in 1983

In September 1983, at the height of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, Stanislav Petrov averted a potential nuclear disaster. What happened about 40 years ago is even more topical today, in a period in which the specter of nuclear war has returned to hover over Europe and as far as the United States, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Today, as and more than yesterday, new technologies play an important role in the military field. And Petrov’s story teaches us that the risk of a machine-triggered conflict isn’t limited to War Games’ Hollywood script.