If the story Petrov tells is true, then it is quite alarming that one man - and not some group of men - had the power to decide the fate of the world.
The people in the Russian missile warning trenches weren't forwarded a copy of the Notice-of-Rocket-Launch-So-You-Don't-Nuke-Us-By-Mistake memo, and the alert went up the chain.
Evidently, the people in the Defense Ministry weren't aware of the launch either, so they went on full alert, ready to launch.
I worked in a place that was the equivalent of the Russian system, and it was the duty officer. Always comes down to one man in the end.
Only with the American system, the red button shut it off...