"I had all the data (to suggest that there was a missile attack in progress). If I had sent my report up the chain of command, no one would have said anything against it," he explained to the BBC's Russian service, 30 years after that Night shift.
Petrov - who retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel and now lives in a small town near Moscow - was part of a well-trained team serving one of the Soviet Union's early warning bases not far from Moscow. His training was rigorous, his instructions very clear.
"couldn't move"
His job was to record missile attacks and report them to the Soviet military and political leadership. In the political climate of 1983, a retaliatory attack would have been almost certain.
And yet, when the time came, he says he nearly froze in place.
"The siren wailed, but I sat there for a few seconds, staring at the big, red, backlit screen with the word 'launch' glowing on it," he says.
