30 years ago, Samantha Smith passed away - the world-famous girl from Maine, who at the height of the Cold War wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Supreme Council and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Andropov, who had just assumed a new position.
Her tragic death on August 25, 1985 (on this day Samantha Smith died in a plane crash when she was returning from the UK with her father) caused a lot of rumors and speculation.
Was it true that Samantha Smith, who after her letter to Yuri Andropov was called the angel of peace, was a random American girl? How did her fate change after her visit to the USSR?
August 1985 The most famous girl in the world, Samantha Smith, dies in a plane crash. Her death is reported by the world's largest media. But most of all they mourn for her in the Soviet Union. Three years before the tragedy, a young American from Maine writes a letter to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Yuri Andropov's response, and then the Smiths' visit to the USSR, become a worldwide sensation.
Samantha Smith is called a victim of propaganda. Rumors are circulating that the Soviet and American intelligence services have agreed: they chose the most beautiful girl and sent her as peace ambassador to the USSR. The sudden death of a child seems to confirm the conspiracy theory.
November 1982. The American "Time" prints on its cover a portrait of the new General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Circulation sold out in a matter of days. A weekly with a portrait of Yuri Andropov ends up on the coffee table of Jane and Arthur Smith. The parents' conversation about the new Soviet leader is overheard by their ten-year-old daughter Samantha.
According to legend, it is Jane who offers her daughter to write to Moscow. In her childishly naive letter, Samantha asks Andropov questions that concern her.
"Samantha Smith was a little writer. She wrote letters not only to Andropov, but also to kings and queens. She could not understand why they did not answer her. She wrote that everyone is afraid of you, Yuri Vladimirovich, because you are from the KGB, everyone is afraid that you will unleash a war, let's live in peace," says Nikolai Dolgopolov, a historian of the special services.
Early 80s. The threat of global conflict is more real than ever. In 1979 Soviet Union sends troops to Afghanistan. The West perceives this as a violation of the geopolitical balance.
The Soviet Union began to be accused primarily of having really aggressive plans to seize other territories and use military force. Soviet tanks stood near Berlin, and in Warsaw, and in Czechoslovakia, and in the south of Europe. The Europeans believed that there were no problems for the Soviet units to reach the English Channel in a few hours.
1981 Ronald Reagan becomes President of the United States. A staunch anti-communist, he threatens to send Marxism-Leninism to the dustbin of history. In the land of the Soviets, meanwhile, the former head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, comes to power. It becomes clear that the new General Secretary does not intend to make concessions in relations with the West. The situation is heating up to the limit. The US and the USSR are intensifying the arms race. Everyone understands that the consequences of the impending conflict will be irreversible. After all, now American and Soviet facilities are enough to destroy the Earth several hundred times. The two superpowers urgently need détente. It was at this time that the message of the young American Andropov was published by the Soviet press.
Yuri Andropov's letter to an ordinary girl from Maine becomes a sensation. It is almost impossible to believe that the head of the world superpower answered her so easily. As if to prove it, a photograph of Samantha with a letter from the Secretary General of the USSR in her hands is printed on the front pages of major newspapers.
The letter contains no threats or accusations against the United States. He says that the Soviet Union is not interested in war, that we want to live and work in peace.
In a matter of days, Samantha becomes a world celebrity. Schoolchildren in the USSR especially like her story. Newspaper clippings with her photographs are kept by every second Soviet boy. For them, the young American is a fighter for world peace, an idol.
Before the trip, the Smiths are invited to the Soviet Embassy. And after some time, an employee of the US State Department visits the family, instructs them on how to behave in the Soviet Union.
July 7, 1983 Samantha and her parents arrive in Moscow. Crowds of people meet them at the airport, only the girl will never see Andropov - he is already seriously ill. But the Secretary General will honor the little guest with a phone call.
Everyone is surprised not only by the ideal behavior of Samantha, worthy of the first lady. The girl turns out to be painfully pretty and photogenic, as if she was selected among thousands of others for a trip to the USSR. Yes, the timing was right. In the Western press, there are suggestions that the story of Samantha is the result of joint actions of the CIA and the KGB.
The photographer accompanied the Smith family during their trip to the USSR. At the hotel "Sovetskaya" the family was met every morning by an interpreter, a guide and a whole group of journalists. Here the Smiths lived for about a week. On excursions around Moscow, Americans were taken on a government Chaika.
“There was an impression that she was the prime minister, the head of a special state. In one of the photographs, she stands with her parents at the tomb of the unknown soldier. She understands that she needs to be silent and sympathize here,” photographer Yuri Abramochkin shares his memories.
The Lenin Mausoleum, a Soviet shrine, is also on the tour program. In those years, it was the main attraction of Moscow. Hundreds of people came to see Lenin every day.
A walk along Red Square, a trip to the Obraztsov Puppet Theater and a trip to the Hermitage - as if the Kremlin wants to surprise not a girl from the American provinces, but western world generally. Every step of the little guest is under the strictest control. Not the slightest provocation should be allowed.
Samantha's most striking impression from her trip to the USSR is a visit to a children's camp in the Crimea. On the occasion of her arrival, the Artek building is being urgently repaired, where the little American, like all children, goes to exercise, to the canteen and even wears a uniform.
"... In Artek, we were greeted with songs by several hundred guys dressed in festive pioneer uniforms. The orchestra played, and the pioneers chanted my name. I was shy and could not utter a word. Young dancers approached me, who carried a loaf of chl Their dance was like a scene from a ballet, and for a moment I again felt like I was in a dream ... ”Samantha will write later in her book Journey to the USSR.
"A girl from a completely different environment, a different cultural space, she blended into the situation so organically - this suggests that she is an unusual girl. She communicated freely with adults. Of course, she was noted. Because not everyone can even endure such attention" - says the deputy director of the All-Union children's camp "Artek" from 1979 to 1986, Galina Sukhoveyko.
“Our children showed her the uniform, she liked it, she dressed up. They tied her bows and she turned into just an “artek”. When the parents saw it, they asked to remove some elements so that there was no complete identity,” says Galina Sukhoveyko.
Samantha lived in the Marine camp, the oldest and considered the best of all ten. It was there that foreign delegations settled mainly. The girl chose not to live with her parents in a separate building, but with her children in a detachment. Her roommate and later friend was Natasha Kashirina.
A young Leningrad girl was hooked up with Samantha because of her fluent English, which she had been studying since early childhood. First with my mother, a teacher, and then at a specialized school.
Journalists of the USSR, the USA and the whole world followed Samantha's every step, every phrase. Samantino "We will live!", which she shouted in Russian just before departure, was remembered by everyone for a long time. For 14 days, the Smith family will be known from newspapers in all remote corners of the USSR and the USA. Samantha's parents will say that both countries benefited from this trip, but to a greater extent this story will benefit the Soviet Union.
Returning home, she also spoke, gave interviews, and expressed her opinion that the USSR was not needed. And in her book Journey to the Soviet Union, Samantha concluded that "they are just like us."
Upon returning from the USSR, Samantha is no longer the little girl she was a month ago. She matures in one summer. In 1983, there is no more famous child in the world. In addition to journalists, American intelligence agencies often question her, trying to find out in the smallest detail about everything that she saw in the Union.
"Special services have always been collecting information. And although they talked to her like a child, they worked on the knowledge of human psychology," explains Leonid Velekhov.
Miss Smith becomes America's youngest ambassador. If she was chosen by the special services, then they had a good casting. After a trip to the USSR, Samantha is invited to television to interview a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party.
August 25, 1985 Two years have passed since the trip to the USSR. Samantha returns with her father from the UK, where she starred in a popular TV comedy show. When landing at the airport in Augusta, the plane crashes. Few people believe in the accident of a plane crash.
"Of course, it was tempting to put forward the version that this was a CIA affair," says Nikolai Dolgopolov.
"Such versions always appear, even in cases of crashes of huge aircraft, and here - even more so," says Leonid Velekhov.
In the death of Samantha, not only experts see the trail of the KGB and the CIA - allegedly the special services wanted to complete the operation in this way. Just a few months before the tragedy, Gorbachev became the Secretary General of the USSR. The new leader of the country is open to a peaceful dialogue with the United States, and the two countries no longer need mediators in this matter.
"She became too independent in her judgments. The image of the enemy that was created in America about the USSR was shaken. The girl grew up, grew wiser, it was impossible to close her. There is no evidence, but her mother, Jane, was convinced that the accident was set up, " - explains Rimma Koshurnikova.
Later in the USSR, a version will appear in the journalistic environment that the Smiths were threatened. It seems that Samantha's too pro-Soviet statements ran counter to US policy. The American press will claim that everything was exactly the opposite. It was too hard for people on both sides of the ocean to believe that the life of a 13-year-old girl could have ended so early and so tragically.
23 September 2010, 15:01Boys and girls whose childhood fell on the 80s remember the names of two girls: Samantha Smith and Katya Lycheva. In 1983, during one of the darkest periods of Soviet-American relations, an eleven-year-old girl from Maine, Samantha Smith, became world famous thanks to a letter she wrote to Andropov, who had just become Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, at the height of the Cold War . 
Samantha once saw US President Reagan and the new Soviet leader Andropov as Man of the Year on the cover of Time Magazine. One of the articles in that magazine said that the new leader of the USSR is a very dangerous person, and that under his leadership the Soviet Union is more than ever a threat to the security of the United States. Then Samantha asked her mother that "if everyone is so afraid of Andropov, why don't they write him a letter and ask if he is going to start a war?" The mother jokingly replied: “Well, write it yourself,” and Samantha wrote. translation: "Dear Mr. Andropov, My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new appointment. I am very worried that nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Are you for war or not? If you are against, please tell me how you are going to prevent the war? Of course, you are not required to answer this question, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the whole world, or at least our country. The Lord created the earth so that we could all live in peace together and not fight. Sincerely, Samantha Smith."
The new Secretary General did not miss the opportunity to use the opportunity of "people's diplomacy". His reply to Samantha was: "Dear Samantha! I received your letter, like many others that come to me these days from your country, from other countries of the world. It seems to me - I judge by the letter - that you are a brave and honest girl, like Becky - Tom's girlfriend Sawyer from the famous book of your compatriot Mark Twain. This book is known and very much loved in our country by all the boys and girls. You write that you are very worried that there will be a nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask if we are doing something, to prevent a war from breaking out. Your question is the most important of those that concern every person. I will answer it seriously and honestly. Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are trying to do and are doing everything to ensure that there is no war between our countries so that there would be no war on earth at all. This is what every Soviet person wants. This is how the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin, taught us. Soviet people know well how terrible and destructive war is. Forty-two years ago, Nazi Germany, which aspired to dominate the whole world, attacked our country, burned and devastated many thousands of our cities and villages, and killed millions of Soviet men, women and children. With Valentina Tereshkova In that war, which ended in our victory, we were in alliance with the United States, fighting together for the liberation of many peoples from the Nazi invaders. I hope you know this from your history lessons at school. And today we really want to live in peace, trade and cooperate with all our neighbors around the globe - both far and near. And, of course, with such a great country as the United States of America. Both America and we have nuclear weapons - terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we don't want it to ever be used. That is why the Soviet Union solemnly announced to the whole world that never, never! will not be the first to use nuclear weapons against any country, and in general we propose to stop their further production and begin to destroy all their stockpiles on earth. It seems to me that this is a sufficient answer to your second question: “Why do you want to conquer the whole world, or at least the United States?” We do not want anything like that. No one in our vast and beautiful country, neither workers and peasants, nor writers and doctors, nor adults and children, nor members of the government, wants either a big or a “small” war. We want peace - we have things to do: grow bread, build and invent, write books and fly into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all the peoples of the planet. For my children and for you, Samantha. I invite you, if your parents allow you, to come to our country, it would be best in the summer. You will get to know our country, meet your peers, visit the international children's camp - Artek - on the seashore. And you will see for yourself: in the Soviet Union - everyone is for peace and friendship between peoples. Thank you for your letter. I wish you all the best. Yu. Andropov".
With parents: Jane and Arthur Smith Samantha and her parents left for the USSR on July 7, 1983. During the two weeks that the Smith family spent in the USSR, Samantha visited Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and the Artek pioneer camp in Crimea. Although the seriously ill Andropov never met with Samantha, they were able to talk on the phone. 
Journalists of the USSR, the USA and the whole world followed Samantha's every step, every phrase. Before flying home on July 22, Samantha smiled at the cameras and shouted in Russian with a smile: “We will live!” And in her book “My Journey to the USSR,” Samantha wrote that “they are just like us.” 
In December 1983, she was invited to Japan as "America's youngest ambassador", where she met with Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and participated in the Children's International Symposium in Kobe. In her speech at the symposium, she suggested that Soviet and American leaders exchange granddaughters for two weeks each year, explaining that the president "won't want to bomb the country his granddaughter is visiting." 
Smith became a media celebrity, and in 1984 became the host of a Disney Channel show called "Samantha Smith Goes to Washington... 1984 Campaign". The show focused on politics, with Smith interviewing several presidential candidates, including George McGovern and Jesse Jackson. Due to her popularity, Samantha was stalked for some time by Robert John Bardo, the man who would later stalk and eventually kill actress Rebecca Schaeffer. In 1985, she was invited to star in the series Lime Street. The cast of Lime Street, Samantha Smith on the left Samantha Smith died in a plane crash on August 25, 1985. She and her father were returning home from the filming of the next episode of the series. The twin-engine aircraft missed the runway, crashing 200 meters away. None of the eight passengers managed to survive. 
The death of the famous girl, many in the United States associated with the activities of the KGB, in the USSR - on the contrary - with the CIA. Be that as it may, a thorough investigation of the accident showed that the entire responsibility for the accident lies with the pilot. After the death in 1985 of Samantha Smith, who visited the USSR in 1983, the Children as the Peacemakers organization offered to organize a return visit to the United States by a Soviet schoolgirl. The choice was given to the Soviet side, setting only two conditions: the girl must actively participate in the struggle for peace and not be older than Samantha. Katya Lycheva was selected from several thousand candidates. Contrary to much gossip, she was not related to the Soviet elite. But Katya starred in several children's films (“Live Rainbow” 1982, “Bambi's Childhood” 1985, “How are you at home, how are you?” 1987, etc.). From March 21 to April 4, 1986, she, along with an American schoolgirl from the city of San Francisco, Star Rowe, toured the United States with peace propaganda, during which she visited several cities in the United States and met with President Ronald Reagan. The Soviet press cultivated the image of Katya, clearly comparing her with the deceased Samantha. Almost all children's periodicals in the USSR were full of photographs and articles. Katya Lycheva at a press conference, Katya Lycheva makes paper doves, Katya Lycheva at a meeting with schoolchildren. The star of Katya Lycheva went down quietly and imperceptibly even before the termination of the existence of the pioneer organization. Katya was no longer needed by the system in the new political conditions that had been created. There was no tragic accident that would firmly inscribe it in history. They simply stopped writing and talking about her. She remained one of the symbols of the decline of the Soviet era, when much was done for show and on orders from above. In 1988, Katya Lycheva moved with her family to Paris (mother, an IMEMO employee, received a Mitterrand scholarship). Since 1995, she has worked at the Paris Center for the Promotion of Foreign Investments. In 2000 she returned to her homeland, worked in the Ministry of Labor and social development RF. Since 2004 - employee federal agency for science-intensive industry (according to other sources - NP "United Aircraft Consortium"). On principle, he does not participate in television shows and does not give interviews to national newspapers, sometimes making an exception for regional publications. At present he works as a vice-president of JSC AVTOVAZ (data for 2008).
On June 29, the American Samantha Smith would have turned 44 years old, but her life was cut short in 1985. Then the whole world spoke about this girl: she wrote a letter to Andropov and came to the USSR at his invitation as a goodwill ambassador. She was called the smallest peacemaker, and this event was the beginning of the "warming" of relations between the USA and the USSR. And two years later, the girl died in a plane crash, which made many doubt the accident of this sudden death.
Samantha Smith at a press conference | Photo: webpark.ru
In the fall of 1982, Samantha Smith read an article in Time Magazine about Yury Andropov, who had come to power in the USSR. The journalist suggested that the new General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU is dangerous for the United States, and during his reign a new war is possible. Samantha asked her mother why everyone is so afraid of him and no one will ask if he is really going to attack the United States. The mother advised her daughter to ask him herself. The girl took the joke seriously and wrote a letter.
Samantha Smith with a letter from the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Yuri Andropov, in which he invites her to visit the USSR. USA, Manchester, 1983. On the right - Samantha in *Artek* | Photo: webpark.ru
In 1983, a letter from a young American woman was published in the Pravda newspaper: “Dear Mr. Andropov! My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new appointment. I am very worried that a nuclear war will break out between the Soviet Union and the United States. Are you for war or not? If you are against, please tell me how you are going to prevent the war? Of course, you don't have to answer this question, but I wanted to know why you want to conquer the whole world, or at least our country. The Lord created the earth so that we could all live in peace together and not fight. Sincerely, Samantha Smith."
On April 26, 1983, Samantha received a letter from Andropov with an invitation to come and see for herself that the USSR was not preparing for war. “We in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything to ensure that there is no war between our countries, that there is no war on Earth at all. This is what every Soviet person wants,” Andropov wrote.
On the left is Samantha Smith in a national costume, made for her by the guys from the circle of applied arts of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers. On the right - Samantha in *Artek* | Photo: aif.ru and webpark.ru
In July 1983, Samantha Smith arrived in the USSR with her parents and stayed there for 2 weeks. She was shown the mausoleum, museums, sights of Moscow and Leningrad, the Artek pioneer camp in the Crimea. She was met by thousands of people, only the meeting with Andropov did not take place - at that time he was already seriously ill, and a visit to the hospital ward was excluded. On July 22, before leaving, Samantha said goodbye: “We will live!”. After her visit, a new expression appeared - "children's diplomacy."
After the trip, Samantha Smith wrote the book "My Journey to the USSR", in which she claimed: "They are the same as us!". In December 1983, Samantha traveled to Japan for the International Children's Symposium. Then they began to invite her to all kinds of shows and series. On August 25, Samantha and her father were returning from England from the filming of a popular show. In America, they transferred to a local airline flight. The weather conditions were unfavorable, and in conditions of poor visibility, the plane overshot the runway and crashed. 2 pilots and 6 passengers were killed.
Left: Samantha Smith meeting with cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Right - Samantha says goodbye to the USSR | Photo: aif.ru and webpark.ru
Since then, disputes have not subsided about what became the real cause of the death of Samantha Smith. Versions were put forward that this plane crash was set up either by the Soviet or American intelligence services. It was said that Samantha died because of pro-Soviet statements, which went against US policy. R. Koshurnikova claims: “She has become too independent in her judgments. The image of the enemy that was created in America about the USSR was shaken. The girl grew, grew wiser, it was impossible to close her.
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a cautious, cunning, very peculiar, but very, no doubt, intelligent person. One must think that there were many finely thought-out operations on his personal account, but the story of the invitation to the USSR of the American schoolgirl Samantha Smith was, perhaps, one of the most impeccable - from the outside and thoughtful - "from the inside."
Is he or someone inner circle The head of state quickly realized that inviting an American schoolgirl is equal to handing over all the trump cards from the deck. And played a flawless game. The end of which, however, was tragic - it is possible that even without the fault of those who played ...
For most people who were once truly in love with this young and naive angel named Samantha, her death is still seen as a mystery, and this is true: despite the fact that, according to the official version, the young Goodwill Ambassador died as a result of a tragic accident , many see the hand of the special services behind her death - the only question is which country. By the time of her death, Samantha was unwillingly a very influential agent of an ideology completely alien to America. She became, in the eyes of the Americans, a "product of Andropov." Although she was just a little girl, it is possible that she became a pawn in someone else's game.
***
Samantha was born on June 29, 1972. Her full name is Samantha Reed Smith. Arthur and Jane Smith adored her - the girl from birth was smiling, inquisitive and somehow especially "open" to the world.
In Samantha's home state of Maine, there were many such girls. Samantha, the bearer of the most common surname in the United States (remember, after all, little Ellie, who later ended up in Oz, was Smith!) - did not differ from her peers in anything, except perhaps for the mentioned curiosity. She loved life and enjoyed it, everything was interesting to her, and, of course, when a copy of Time Magazine appeared at their house, she immediately began to leaf through it. It was Sunday; Mom rattled something in the kitchen, and fear crept into the heart of little Samantha. From the cover of the magazine, a dry, stern man in glasses was looking at her - his eyes seemed like small black peppers, this look burned so much. It turned out that the man's name is Yuri Andropov and he is the new leader of the mysterious country of the USSR. Flipping through the pages, Samantha also found a very interesting article, which caused, in fact, horror: it was written that Andropov is a most dangerous person, and now the security of the United States is a big question. At the same time, this Andropov was, apparently, influential - after all, he was also presented on the cover as "Person of the Year"!
Before her daughter, Jane Smith managed to read the magazine and they began to talk.
Poor little girl... How terrible it is - when suddenly the course of a calm life is interrupted and horror creeps that all this carelessness will end, and childhood will end, and suddenly a war will break out... It is not surprising that Samantha bombarded her mother with legitimate questions:
Mom, but if this Andropov is such a dangerous type, and if everyone is so afraid of him, why doesn't anyone ask - is it true that he wants war or not?
Then Jane recalled, giving an interview to the BBC Russian Service:
I told Samantha how great it would be if he (Andropov) had some new ideas on how America and the Soviet Union could live in peace. I had to find very simple words to explain to her what the cold war is. Then she says to me: why don't you write him a letter. Without thinking at all, I answered her: write it yourself. She left and after a while returned with a letter.
***
I must say that not long before this, Samantha wrote a letter to Elizabeth II. And got an answer! She also wrote to others. So the epistolary genre was nothing new. The general situation in the world was extremely tense: the appointment of the former head of the KGB as the leader of the USSR did not contribute to detente in Soviet-American relations, the arms race was gaining momentum, the USSR entered Afghanistan...
"Dear Mr. Andropov!" - brought out Samantha and thought. What's next? She decided to be very polite and very sincere.
"... My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I am very worried that a nuclear war will start between Russia and the United States. Are you going to vote for starting a war or not? If you are against war, say please, how are you going to help prevent war? You are of course not obligated to answer my question, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the whole world, or at least our country. God created the Earth so that we can all be together lived in peace and did not fight. Sincerely yours, Samantha Smith."
After thinking, she added after the address that she was waiting for an answer. In November 1982, a letter from America flew to the USSR.
***
Excerpts from a letter from a young American woman were published in Pravda in early 1983. Samantha found out about this: still, few newspapers in the world did not report this sensation. But she didn't have a personal answer. Then the girl wrote to the USSR Ambassador to the USA Then Samantha wrote a second letter, this time to the Soviet Ambassador to the USA Anatoly Dobrynin, in which she asked if Mr. Andropov would respond to her letter. “It seemed to me that my questions are good, what difference does it make that I am 10 years old,” she attributed ...
Obviously, at that moment they decided to answer the letter. The answer came on April 26, 1983. The letter was signed by Yuri Andropov.
***
No one knows for sure the details of the circumstances that led Yuri Andropov to a brilliant idea - to arrange a colossal PR for the USSR and for himself personally from this story. It was a brilliant move: Yuri Vladimirovich wrote an answer to the girl almost like a kind grandfather, though convicted by the authorities.
"Dear Samantha! I received your letter, like many others that come to me these days from your country, from other countries of the world. It seems to me - I judge by the letter - that you are a brave and honest girl, like Becky, Tom's girlfriend Sawyer from the famous book of your compatriot Mark Twain.. This book is known and very much loved in our country by all the boys and girls. You write that you are very worried about a nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask if we are doing something to prevent a war from breaking out. Your question is the most important one that any thinking person could ask. I will answer it seriously and honestly. Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything to ensure that there is no war between our countries, so that there would be no war on earth at all. This is what every Soviet person wants. This is how the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin, taught us. Soviet people are well aware of what a terrible and destructive thing war is. 42 years ago, Nazi Germany I, who aspired to dominate the whole world, attacked our country, burned and devastated many thousands of our cities and villages, killed millions of Soviet men, women and children.
In that war, which ended in our victory, we were in alliance with the United States, fighting together for the liberation of many peoples from the Nazi invaders. I hope you know this from your history lessons at school. And today we really want to live in peace, trade and cooperate with all our neighbors around the globe, both far and near. And, of course, with such a great country as the United States of America.
Both America and we have nuclear weapons - terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we don't want it to ever be used. That is why the Soviet Union solemnly, to the whole world, announced that never, never! - will not use nuclear weapons first against any country. In general, we propose to stop its further production and proceed to the destruction of all its reserves on earth. It seems to me that this is a sufficient answer to your second question: "Why do you want to conquer the whole world, or at least the United States?" We don't want anything like that. No one in our country, neither workers and peasants, nor writers and doctors, nor adults and children, nor members of the government, wants either a big or a "small" war.
We want peace - we have things to do: grow bread, build and invent, write books and fly into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all the peoples of the planet. For my children and for you, Samantha.
I invite you, if your parents let you, to come to us, best of all, in the summer. You will get to know our country, meet your peers, visit the international camp for children - in the Artekena Sea. And you will see for yourself: in the Soviet Union everything is for peace and friendship between peoples.
Thanks for your congratulations. I wish you all the best in your life that has just begun. Yu. Andropov".
Before the trip, the Smiths had a conversation at the Soviet Embassy, where they were asked to be "simply sincere." Came to them and from the US State Department.
We asked a man from the State Department who came to see us before leaving what we should do if we were put in an awkward position, if it turned out that we were against our own country, Samantha's mother, Jane, recalled much later. He said they won't do it. They understand and won't do it.
In Moscow, the Smiths were met by a crowd of people. The guests were accommodated in the hotel "Sovetskaya".
***
All the boys of the USSR fell in love with a smiling girl. She was absolutely happy because she saw an amazing country, Moscow and Leningrad, and also Artek. In Artek, she followed all the rules of the camp and then said that she would like to come there - already for a full shift. The pioneer form delighted her and she took her home.
Sheer shocks awaited Samantha - friendly, happy children, a story about the terrible blockade of Leningrad, the Kremlin and the Mausoleum, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, she visited theaters and the circus, and, leaving, took with her main idea Nobody here wanted war! Andropov was already seriously ill and did not meet with her, but spoke to the girl on the phone. In addition, Samantha took with her a bunch of gifts from him. Flying away on July 22, Samantha smiled and shouted to the mourners in Russian: “We will live!”
Now life was not scary.
In America, Samantha excitedly talked about what she saw in the USSR. She began to be invited to shoot in the series, and besides, the popular girl became a correspondent for the Disney Channel. Her book Journey to the Soviet Union has been translated into several languages.
On August 25, 1985, Samantha Smith and her father were returning from the filming of the series Lime Street, where the girl played one of the roles. The weather conditions were not easy, and the plane first changed direction, flew not to August, where Jane Smith was waiting for her husband and daughter, but to Auburn-Lewiston. But due to poor visibility, the "twin-engine" missed the runway, crashing two hundred meters from it. None of the passengers (6 people) and crew members (2 people) survived. The bodies of Samantha and her father were cremated and buried near Houlton, Samantha's hometown.
Instead of an afterword
Despite the fact that so many years have passed since the death of Samantha, she is remembered. She was truly a bright child and a citizen of the world. Somewhere far, far away, asteroid No. 3147 is flying over our world - named by the Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh after Samantha ...
However, the story of her death haunts many to this day. And although the official version of the death says that there is a pilot error - he missed the runway, many tend to see the trace of the special services in this story. More than once, the opinion was expressed that Samantha was the victim of her pro-Soviet statements, which went against US policy. So, in particular, Rimma Koshurnikova, director of charitable programs at the Samantha Smith Center for Children's Diplomacy, said that this is exactly what she added: “She has become too independent in her judgments. The image of the enemy that was created in America about the USSR was shaken. The girl grew up, grew wiser, it was impossible to close her "...
There is a version that Samantha was a kind of "project" of the special services of the two countries - both the USSR and the USA. Painfully good and photogenic was "Goodwill Ambassador". This in no way detracted from its merits, but ... One could say otherwise: it was a "project" that helped to defuse the most acute international situation.
Meanwhile, witnesses to this story added fuel to the fire - voluntarily or involuntarily. For example, the famous photographer Yuri Abramochkin, who, alas, recently died, was assigned to the Smith family during their entire trip, and then recalled:
I then worked in a press agency. I was offered to "swim in the Black Sea among the" Artek ". I understood that this was a serious task ..."
And watching Samantha, Abramochkin was surprised:
There was an impression that she was the prime minister, the head of a special state. In one of the photographs, she stands with her parents at the tomb of the unknown soldier. She understands that here it is necessary to be silent and sympathize!
And on the other side of the ocean they wrote something else. "No one denies that Samantha Smith behaved with the dignity and spontaneity typical of a young American woman. She deserved admiration for this. However, the same cannot be said about Jane and Arthur Smith, who allowed the Kremlin to play their daughter as a pawn," one American reported. magazines.
When insinuations began about the dubious reasons for the death of a girl, there was also talk that the Smiths were threatened. The Americans argued otherwise. But, of course, it was extremely difficult for people who fell in love with Samantha on both sides of the ocean to believe that the girl's life could be interrupted so early and so tragically.
Jane Smith said that she had no doubt that the death of her daughter and husband was a tragic accident. "I have no reason to believe that it was a conspiracy," she argued.
And, probably, you can’t deceive a mother’s heart. However, the fact is that the lovely girl "fulfilled her mission" and turned out to be, in principle, no longer needed. Relations between countries began to change, the era of Gorbachev was coming, and with it the decline of the USSR. But the angel Samantha didn't find this one...
Samantha Smith is an American schoolgirl from Maine who became world famous thanks to a letter she wrote to Andropov, who had just become Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, at the height of the Cold War.
Samantha once saw the new Soviet leader Andropov on the cover of US President Reagan's Time Magazine as Person of the Year. One of the articles in that magazine said that the new leader of the USSR is a very dangerous person, and that under his leadership the Soviet Union is more than ever a threat to the security of the United States. Then Samantha asked her mother that "if everyone is so afraid of Andropov, why don't they write him a letter and ask if he is going to start a war?" Mother jokingly replied: “Well, write it yourself”, Samantha wrote and everything started spinning ...
Dear Mr. Andropov,
My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I am very worried that a nuclear war will break out between Russia and the United States. Are you going to vote to start a war or not? If you are against, please tell me how you are going to help prevent a war? Of course, you are not required to answer this question, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world, or at least our country. The Lord created the earth so that we could all live in peace together and not fight.
Sincerely yours,
Samantha Smith
Samantha's letter was published in the Pravda newspaper, the girl was happy when she found out about it, but by that time she had not yet received an answer to her letter. Then she wrote a letter to the Soviet ambassador to the United States, asking if Andropov was going to answer her. On April 26, 1983, she received a letter from Andropov in Russian, typed on tinted paper and signed in blue ink, dated April 19, 1983, and accompanied by a translation into English language. Below is the Russian version of the letter:
Dear Samantha!
I received your letter, as well as many others coming to me these days from your country, from other countries of the world.
It seems to me - I judge from the letter - that you are a brave and honest girl, like Becky, Tom Sawyer's girlfriend from the famous book of your compatriot Mark Twain. All the boys and girls in our country know and love this book very much.
You write that you are very worried about whether there will be a nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask if we're doing anything to stop the war from breaking out.
Your question is the most important of those that every thinking person could ask. I will answer you seriously and honestly.
Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything to ensure that there is no war between our countries, that there is no war on earth at all. This is what every Soviet person wants. This is how the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin, taught us.
Soviet people are well aware of what a terrible and destructive thing war is. Forty-two years ago, Nazi Germany, which aspired to dominate the whole world, attacked our country, burned and devastated many thousands of our cities and villages, and killed millions of Soviet men, women and children.
In that war, which ended in our victory, we were in alliance with the United States, fighting together for the liberation of many peoples from the Nazi invaders. I hope you know this from your history lessons at school. And today we really want to live in peace, trade and cooperate with all our neighbors around the globe - both distant and close. And, of course, with such a great country as the United States of America.
Both America and we have nuclear weapons - terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we don't want it to ever be used. That is why the Soviet Union solemnly announced to the whole world that never, never! - will not use nuclear weapons first against any country. In general, we propose to stop its further production and proceed to the destruction of all its reserves on earth.
It seems to me that this is a sufficient answer to your second question: "Why do you want to conquer the whole world, or at least the United States?" We don't want anything like that. No one in our country - neither workers and peasants, nor writers and doctors, nor adults and children, nor members of the government, wants either a big or a "small" war.
We want peace - we have things to do: grow bread, build and invent, write books and fly into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all the peoples of the planet. For my children and for you, Samantha.
I invite you, if your parents let you, to come to us, best of all - in the summer. You will get to know our country, meet your peers, visit the international children's camp - in Artek by the sea. And you will see for yourself: everything in the Soviet Union is for peace and friendship between peoples.
Thanks for your congratulations. I wish you all the best in your newly begun life.
Y. Andropov
And she did come. Samantha and her parents left for the USSR on July 7, 1983. At the airport, she was met by many people who were not indifferent to the event and politics. During the 2 weeks that the Smith family spent in the Soviet Union, Goodwill Ambassador Samantha visited Moscow, Leningrad, and the main Artek pioneer camp in the Crimea. In the Artek camp, the leadership was preparing to receive Samantha: they completed the canteen, prepared the best room, and even sewed her a pioneer uniform at random, without knowing the size. Subsequently, she really liked the form and she took it with her. In the camp, she followed the usual daily routine, like all Soviet children. Although the seriously ill Andropov never met with Samantha, they talked on the phone.
The media of the USSR, the USA and the whole world followed her every step, every phrase. Before flying home on July 22, Samantha smiled at the cameras and shouted in Russian with a smile: “We will live!” And in her book Journey to the Soviet Union, Samantha concluded that "they are just like us."