This man's name is Vasili Arkhipov, and he was the second in command on the Soviet Foxtrot-Class submarine B-59, which was just offshore of Cuba. The date was October 27th, 1962 which was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The USS Randolph began dropping depth charges in order to force the submarine to surface so they could identify them. The captain of B-59, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky believed that the charges were the beginning of a nuclear war. He convinced the political officer, Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, to launch a nuclear tipped torpedo. The two men tried to persuade Arkhipov to go along with launching the torpedo.
The submarine needed three officers to launch the torpedo, and Vasili Arkhipov was against the launch. There was an argument, and Arkhipov convinced Savitsky to surface the submarine and wait for orders. If Arkhipov would have agreed to launch the torpedo, the USA would have surely seen this as a sign of agression and a full out nuclear war would have ensued. It was because of Arkhipov that the disaster was averted and the world did not have to suffer an apocalypse.
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