Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Saturday Morning Weird News Dump | Main | Saturday Gardening Thread: The harvest is on now! [KT] »
October 07, 2017

Back in the USSR [KT]

russian-2-dimension.jpeg

Thought about learning some Russian?

Hello, Horde. Hope your Saturday is going well. I have some sad news from afar. The man who saved the world has died. I likely owe my life to a split-second decision by a man named Stanislav Petrov. The Economist is the source of this obituary:

"The base" was the secret Serpukhov-15 early-warning facility, near Moscow. He had worked there--since graduation, with top honours, from the Radio-Technical College in Kiev--monitoring surveillance by Oko satellites of the missile launch areas of the United States. Its core was a room of 200 computer operators over which, when he was on duty, he would preside from a glassed-in mezzanine office. On one wall of the computer room, an electronic world map lit up the American launch areas: six of them, with a total of 1,000 missiles aimed at the USSR. Just above his eye level, a wall's-width screen glowed a dull red. If nothing appeared on it, all was well. . .

September 26th 1983 was different. At half past midnight, the red screen flashed "START". A missile was coming. The siren howled. In the room below, people leapt from their seats. Everyone looked up at him. He had frozen. The message seemed odd: one missile would not mean the all-out attack they were expecting. But how did he know? Scared stiff, he roared at everyone to get back to work. When he managed to pick up the phone, he reported a fault in the system. But then it saw a second missile. A third, a fourth, a fifth: "probability of attack, 100%". In ten minutes, ground radar could confirm it. But in 12 minutes the missiles, if they were coming, would hit Russia. High command needed 12 minutes to organise their response. . .

His hands shaking, he called his superiors again. Again he reported a malfunction, not a strike. The officer at the other end was drunk, but somehow passed it on. Mr Petrov then waited for 15 unbearable minutes. And nothing happened. There was indeed a fault in the system: the satellite had been fooled by the sun's rays reflecting off clouds high over North Dakota, which had two launch areas.

You should maybe read the whole thing. "They did not thank him for showing them up, for it was an old rule in Russia that the subordinate must never be cleverer than the boss. Instead, they rapped him for failing to fill in the operations log that night."

After his wife died, he lived for some time mostly on potatoes and tea made from herbs picked in the park. After 1998 his story was no longer a secret and he became famous in the West, but his life remained dreary back home. The obituary is well-written.

This video of Russian dancers, and the music, seemed strangely appropriate as I thought about this man's life. The way the dancers move is inexplicable. Seems inexplicable to me that this man could have been overlooked by his countrymen for all these years.

Honey, disconnect the phone. Roger L. Simon describes his two visits to the USSR in the 1980s:

Fascinating place. Loved the Russian orthodox churches and the gorgeous icons, the quaint dachas in Peredelkino where Boris Pasternak used to live. The caviar and blini was terrific too, washed down by endless shots of Russian Standard vodka. And, because I was on cultural exchanges, I met brilliant people like Yevgeny Yevtushenko and a dozen or so other well known Soviet writers and filmmakers.

Funnily enough, most of them would eventually take me aside and ask me if I could help them get out of there. I couldn't, unfortunately, but I could well understand why they wanted to leave. At the end of both of my trips of about two weeks each, I desperately wanted to get the Hell out myself. I hated the place.

The Soviet Union was like one giant jail. You had no privacy. You had no life. KGB minders followed you everywhere -- even, in my case, straight into the lobby men's room of Moscow's Cosmos Hotel to watch me tinkle. . . .

Stanislav Petrov's phone, in his drab little apartment, was disconnected for lack of payment at the time of his death.

Here's Paul McCartney, in Kiev in 2008. After the USSR was gone.

Note: This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

digg this
posted by Open Blogger at 11:48 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Our Country is Screwed: "I'm not heavy and have been wearing a full beard a ..."

Duke Lowell : "Paul, you ignorant slut. ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "FWIW. Maybe it’s a New York thing. Posted b ..."

brak: "we had a good run as a nation ..."

polynikes: "ott Adams @ScottAdamsSays 1h I don’t get e ..."

jeff spicoli's brother: "Posted by: Paul banned at March 28, 2024 05:47 PM ..."

Fountains of Wayne: "I'm in love with Paulie's mom. ..."

Ciampino - just traveling, not driving: "142 not certain whether typo for "allision" or "li ..."

Duke Lowell : "I too support a cease fire in Gaza. Once all their ..."

torabora : "I've been putting off mailing Bowman his fire alar ..."

Our Country is Screwed: "179 Saw a half Pali (half I forget) gal answer the ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "Posted by: Paul banned at March 28, 2024 05:47 PM ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64