The life and death of the famous American schoolgirl who wrote a letter to Andropov and visited the USSR

On July 7, 1983, ten-year-old American schoolgirl Samantha Smith flew to the USSR. A little ambassador of peace, a snowdrop of the Cold War, a propaganda tool - whatever you call this girl, who changed the way the citizens of two huge states look at each other. Samantha lived only thirteen years, but managed to become perhaps the most famous child in the world. Thanks to her initiative, openness and sincerity, American television for the first time showed not tanks and parades, but Soviet children playing, while the Soviet people saw for the first time that Americans also have families.

"Dear Mr. Andropov..."

In the spring of 1983, the Pravda newspaper published a letter addressed to Yuri Andropov, who had been elected general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee several months earlier, says Air force:

“My name is Samantha Smith. I am 10 years old. “Congratulations on your new appointment,” the letter said. “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 it, then please tell me how you are going to prevent 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 together in peace and not fight.”

The letter received a great response - it was published in the newspaper Pravda, and Soviet citizens started talking about it. Of course, this was not an accident - the message of a young American woman could not get into the central media of the Soviet Union without certain directives. As it turned out later, it was handed over to the newspaper by one of the employees of the CPSU Central Committee apparatus. He understood how the appeal of an American child could be used to the benefit of the country. Therefore, along with the publication of Samantha’s letter in the Pravda newspaper, comments appeared about how American children were being frightened by the nuclear threat allegedly emanating from the USSR.

It is obvious that such a letter from an American would not have appeared on the pages of Soviet newspapers without orders from above.

Later it became known that “at the top” the letter was considered beneficial for the reputation of the country, which at that time was depleted by the arms race and four years of war in Afghanistan. The publication of Samantha's letter in Pravda was preceded by US statements about the deployment of missile defense in Europe and the Star Wars program. And Reagan’s speech, in which he called the USSR an “evil empire.” At the same time, protests against nuclear weapons were growing in the West, and demonstrators criticized not only the USSR, but also the policies of Reagan, who set the goal of catching up and overtaking the Soviet Union in the nuclear race. The girl’s letter to the USSR was considered an opportunity to “extend an olive branch” to America, as former USSR diplomat Donald Jensen put it.

Jane Smith, Samantha's mother, still lives in the small town of Manchester in Maine, where in November 1982 the letter was sent to "Mr. Yuri Andropov, Kremlin, Moscow, USSR." The woman says that her daughter has always loved writing letters. One day she saw Elizabeth II on TV, who was on a visit on the other side of the border, in Canada. The British queen captured Samantha's imagination so much that she wrote her a letter, to which a response came some time later. The girl concluded that it was worth writing letters and that they would definitely be answered.

Invitation to the USSR

However, Andropov (or his assistant) did not respond to the letter. 10-year-old Samantha gave interviews to journalists from all over the world who sought her out as soon as the letter was published in Pravda, and the question of whether Andropov wanted war remained open. Then Samantha wrote a second letter, this time to the Soviet ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, in which she asked whether Andropov was going to answer her questions. And on April 25, 1983, Pravda published Andropov’s response to Samantha, which was immediately reprinted by American newspapers.

“It seems to me,” I judge from the letter, “that you are a brave and honest girl, like Becky, Tom Sawyer’s girlfriend,” begins the letter from Andropov, to whom Western media often attributed a love of jazz and American literature. He also writes that the question asked by Samantha is the most important for a thinking person.

Further, the author of the letter recalls that the USSR and the USA fought together in World War II, and writes that the USSR wants to live in peace “with such a great country as the United States.” In conclusion, he invites Samantha to visit the Soviet Union and see with her own eyes its peacefulness.

On July 7, 1983, the girl and her parents flew to Moscow. Most experts reject the idea that the Smiths were immediately “recruited” by Soviet intelligence services. Rather, they led a certain “trend.” The Smiths were taken to the Lenin Mausoleum and to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but they did not try to tie Samantha’s pioneer tie and in general, judging by Jane’s recollections, the authorities showed political correctness.

Samantha was introduced to the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova and other celebrities, but Andropov himself, who was seriously ill almost from the moment of his appointment as Secretary General, sent gifts in his place, citing being busy. The Smiths were accommodated in the best hotel rooms for foreign tourists and transported around Moscow in an executive Chaika. And only in the Crimean pioneer camp “Artek”, where the Smiths were sent for three days, Samantha, who declared that she would live with the rest of the children, tasted a little of Soviet life: when she saw yellow Soviet sausages, she refused to eat them, “after all, they should be red” .

Leaving the Soviet Union, Samantha said in Russian in front of journalists: “We will live!”

Leonid Velikhov, deputy editor-in-chief of the publication Sovershenno Sekretno, who was in his early 20s that year, says he was skeptical of Samantha Smith at first. “When we saw Samantha in person, this skepticism disappeared a little,” Velikhov told the BBC Russian Service. “She was very charming, undoubtedly very sincere.”

American journalists, who accompanied the Smiths everywhere on the trip, also reacted with sympathy to Samantha, who surprisingly quickly learned not to be embarrassed in front of the cameras pointed at her. The New York Times called her "the schoolgirl who disarmed the Russians."

After returning from the USSR, Samantha became very popular in her homeland. She was invited to become a special correspondent for the Disney channel, to star in TV series, the girl wrote the book “Journey to the Soviet Union,” which she dedicated to children around the world.

Plane crash - accident or special operation

25 August 1985, Samantha and her father were returning home from London from the set of Lime Street. A small Beechcraft 99 aircraft flying from Boston to Maine unsuccessfully entered the runway and crashed. All six passengers and two pilots were killed.

The Soviet press hinted “between the lines” that Samantha could have been killed: the cause of the crash was unknown, the plane was safe, and the Smiths were allegedly threatened. It was too difficult for people on both sides of the ocean to believe that the life of a thirteen-year-old girl could end so quickly and tragically. The KGB and the CIA were blamed for her death, they called the incident a special operation designed to complete “mediation” between the two countries, and they said that the girl had become too independent in her judgment.

Samantha's mother Jane Smith says she has no reason to doubt the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board investigation. “Journalists from Russia often asked me if I believed that the plane crash was faked. I can’t know for sure, but I have no reason to believe that it was a conspiracy,” she said in an interview with the BBC Russian Service.

When Samantha passed away, they tried to preserve her memory in both the Soviet Union and the United States. In the United States, they created a foundation named after Samantha Smith and established a day of her memory in Maine, where the girl lived and her mother now lives. Schools in New York and Washington states are named after Samantha. In the Morskoy pioneer camp there is an alley named after Samantha Smith and a memorial stele in her honor. A Caucasus mountain peak, a sea vessel, a rare Yakut diamond, an asteroid and several streets in Russian regional centers were named after the girl.

Tens of years later, most of those who remember the story of Samantha tend to think that her death was an accident, like the confluence of circumstances that made her a celebrity. Of course, it was not without propaganda, but it turned out that Samantha played into the hands of both superpowers: she charmed the Soviet people with her American immediacy and showed the human face of the USSR to the Americans.

Read also on ForumDaily:

In case of Armageddon: 11 US shelters from the Cold War

What is it like for an emigrant from Russia to watch films about “bad Russians”

How does it feel to be Russian in modern America

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.