(History) How a letter from a little American girl sent to the USSR saved the world

[Russian Bear]

Translated from Russian to English via Google Translate by Russian Bear.

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(Cold War) USSR and USA - on the brink of a nuclear war that did not happen in 1983, World War III. https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1665121


The photographs show a little american girl Samantha Smith with a letter sent to the General Secretary of the USSR Yuri Andropov, and Yuri Andropov himself - Chairman of the KGB (State Security Committee), who became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU Central Committee), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

(In the photo Samantha Smith and Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the USSR (in simple words, President of the Soviet Union))

Why don't they write him a letter and ask him?

It is said that children should be cared for like plants, a vessel or fresh arable land. Little people, like a blank sheet of paper, are open to whatever inscriptions will be placed upon them. They have not yet absorbed enough information about the world around them, experienced many events, or performed the tasks that adults face. Their value judgements are not hampered, for example, by such complex concepts as 'morality', 'choice', 'relationships', 'vigilance'. Therefore, many realities of the adult world seem incomprehensible to children, because they project a naive and simple picture of their often non-conflictual, open environment.

I would like to add that 1983 was the peak of the Cold War and the use of nuclear weapons, the red button was open, all that was left was to press it. The USSR, led by Andropov, was in maximum readiness to resist the US, led by Reagan, in a war. To understand the tension of that time, I will publish an article later:

So when, on 22 November 1982, Time magazine's cover featured a portrait of the new General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Yuri Andropov, and the publication devoted several articles to him, Samantha Smith, a schoolgirl from Maine, who had read them, asked her mother: "If everyone is so afraid of Andropov, why don't they write him a letter and ask him if he's going to start a war?".



Revolution of the Cold War

Despite the forecasts of political scientists who promised detente and the fading of the Cold War, the next stage of the arms race began in 1983, as well as the exchange of unfriendly political gestures between the USSR and the USA. American military bases in Europe have long occupied tens of times more territory than political organizations. The Soviet Union, under the disapproval of the world community, sent troops into Afghanistan. Both countries deployed the latest strategic nuclear weapons and defense systems.

Science and art added fuel to the fire - works of a pacifist and post-apocalyptic nature were published on the pages of publications, art exhibitions and films, and the development of technology promised the robotization of weapons and even the deployment of missile defense systems in space, not to mention the creation of new, technically unsurpassed models .

In the United States, the new Secretary General Andropov was quickly demonized. He came from the KGB, participated in military actions in the countries of the Warsaw War, and brutally persecuted dissidents. The fortieth US President Ronald Reagan suffered no less: he was accused of inciting war after the slogan “catch up and overtake the nuclear superiority of the USSR”; American society was tired of constant military operations around the world, of the hunt for foreign agents and the fear of seeing a nuclear mushroom outside the window in the morning .

In such a situation, 10-year-old Samantha decided to write a letter to the Kremlin to “a very dangerous person,” according to Time.

Consequences of two letters

The tense situation in the world gave rise to a natural reaction. In addition to peacekeeping and pacifist organizations, children's letters to government organizations or specific political figures in their own and other countries were in fashion.

Samantha already had a similar experience - she wrote to Queen Elizabeth II. The girl saw a report about the royal visit to Canada and was delighted with Elizabeth’s charm. Samantha received a response letter, which gave her confidence that every request would receive a response. However, with Andropov, things didn’t work out quite like that.

After watching TV programs about a nuclear war that would destroy the earth and leave no winners, and hearing her father and mother talking about a possible war between America and the USSR in the kitchen, the girl asked her mother who could start the conflict. Jane Smith, who worked as a social worker, gave her that very issue of Time with articles about Andropov and the USSR. After reading them, the girl realized that each country has nuclear weapons, that each side is ready to use them, and each is afraid of the other side using these weapons. To the girl, accustomed to simple communication with her peers, this seemed stupid. Then she suggested that her mother write a letter to Andropov, to which she received a response offer to do it herself. That's what the girl did. Text of the letter:


Samantha Smith and her letter:

“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 the war or not? If you are against war, please tell me how you are going to help prevent war? Of course, you don't have to answer my question, but I would like an answer. Why do you want to conquer the whole world or at least our country? God created the world for us to live together and take care of it, not to conquer it. Please, let's do what he wants and everyone will be happy."

Samantha Smith.

In the spring of 1983, while Samantha was at school, she was called to the phone. A United Press International correspondent told the girl that her letter had been published (in part) in the Soviet newspaper Pravda. When she returned home, she realized that she had become the center of attention - a crowd of reporters was waiting for her, whose questions the family had to answer until late.

The media attention was considerable, but Samantha received no attention from the Kremlin addressee. Then she wrote a second letter, this time to the USSR Ambassador to the United States, A.F. Dobrynin, asking whether Andropov was going to write her a reply. The apparatchiks caught up, and on 26 April 1983, a letter from Andropov was already in the Smiths' mailbox (it was dated 19 April, obviously delivered by the express diplomatic postal service). It was in Russian with an English translation attached.
Letter from Yuri Andropov to Samantha Smith:

Yuri Andropov, Chairman of the KGB (State Security Committee), who became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (In other words, the President of the USSR).

19 April 1983

Dear Samantha!!!

I received your letter, like many others coming to me these days from your country, from other countries of the world.

It seems to me - I judge from your letter - that you are a brave and honest girl, like Becky, Tom Sawyer's girlfriend from the famous book by your compatriot Mark Twain. This book is known and loved in our country by all boys and girls.

You write that you are very worried about nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask if we are doing anything to keep the war from breaking out.

Your question is the most important question any thinking person could ask. I'm going to answer it seriously and honestly.

Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union try to do everything so that there is no war between our countries, so that there is no war on earth at all. That's what every Soviet person wants. This is what the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin, taught us.

Soviet people know very well what a terrible and destructive thing war is. 42 years ago, Nazi Germany, which sought to dominate the entire world, attacked our country, burned and devastated many thousands of our towns 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 to liberate many nations from the Nazi invaders. I hope you know this from your history lessons at school. And today we very much want to live in peace, trade and co-operate with all our neighbours around the globe - both distant and near. And, of course, with such a great country as the United States of America.
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Both America and we have nuclear weapons - terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we do not want them ever to be used. That is why the Soviet Union has solemnly declared to the whole world that it will never - never! - will never use nuclear weapons first against any country. And in general we propose to stop its further production and to proceed to the destruction of all its 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 don't want any such thing. No one in our country - not workers and peasants, not writers and doctors, not adults and children, not members of the government - wants either a big or a "small" war.

We want peace - we have something to do: to grow bread, to build and invent, to write books and fly into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all the peoples of the planet. For our children and for you, Samantha.

I invite you, if your parents let you, to come and visit us, preferably in the summer. You will get to know our country, meet your peers, visit the international camp for children in Artek on the sea. And you will see for yourself that in the Soviet Union everyone is in favour of peace and friendship between peoples.

Thank you for your congratulations. I wish you all the best in your newly started life.

Y. Andropov


In this response letter, the Secretary General invited Samantha to visit the USSR with her family. Before sending the letter, the embassy discussed the possibility of publishing Andropov’s response with the girl’s father, Arthur Smith, a teacher at a local university. The letters ended up in newspapers, and the very fact of correspondence was covered in the media of many countries around the world; Samantha was invited to interviews, on TV shows, and to events. When it became known that the Smiths accepted an invitation to visit the USSR, they were advised by a representative of the US State Department, but neither politicians nor official bodies gave evaluative comments about the girl’s action.

Tourism under the gaze of TV cameras

From 7 to 8 July 1983 the Smiths arrived in Moscow. For a fortnight they travelled along the route Moscow - Artek Pioneer Camp (Crimea) - Leningrad - Moscow. The journey with a rich cultural programme lasted two weeks. During the first days the Smiths visited the Kremlin, Lenin's Mausoleum, the Eternal Flame and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, theatres, museums, and Pioneer Houses in Moscow. Meetings with famous people were organised for them, for example, with V. Tereshkova. The trip to Leningrad was also rich. Samantha learnt the history of Russia by visiting Peterhof and the Hermitage. The American girl also learnt about the heroic resilience of Leningrad residents during the Great Patriotic War, for example, she read the diary of Tanya Savicheva.
Samantha Smith is initiated into the pioneers


Samantha Smith in the USSR. Soviet children initiate Samantha into the Pioneers, dress her in their uniform and do her hair with bows.

The trip to Artek deserves special mention. Samantha immersed herself in the lives of her peers, living in a shared ward with other girls, following the camp schedule, participating in activities, as well as in the filming of a documentary film about the camp. From there she took her pioneer uniform with her.

The family was accompanied everywhere by dozens of reporters, so the Smiths' trip was watched all over the world. According to the recollections of contemporaries, many were skeptical about the visit, but when they saw footage or photographs of Samantha in Moscow or with children in Artek, they quickly changed their minds. The same, as a rule, happened to those who considered the trip a political stunt and a means of propaganda. The girl became a real goodwill ambassador. Andropov himself, however, due to health problems, was unable to meet with the Smiths, but they exchanged gifts.

After a touching farewell to the USSR, and then a solemn meeting in Maine, Samantha became a welcome guest at children's or peacekeeping events, television shows, and a political interviewer. She often gave interviews, received letters from her friends from the Union, words of support or criticism came from strangers. With the help of her parents, she wrote a book and began acting in films and TV series.
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Pawn in a political game or innocent child?

The media closely followed every little detail during Samantha's trip, as well as her further activities. In the United States, attitudes toward the trip both in society and among leaders varied, and opinions were sometimes polar. In the USSR, information bureaus focused attention on the peacekeeping essence of this action, but part of the population was skeptical about the event, especially young people. Inquisitive minds immediately gave rise to numerous conspiracy theories. Was Samantha recruited by Soviet intelligence services? Was she recruited by American intelligence agencies before the trip? Or maybe both happened?

Samantha turned out to be a convenient excuse for a suspended “detente”, with the help of which important people from their offices can “extend an olive branch”, tacitly convey what they cannot say from the stands in large halls, at diplomatic meetings and from the TV screen. If they decided to use her as a “discharge grounding device”, and then, under the slogan “through the mouth of a child...” to promote new trends in politics, well, in this case, Samantha really managed to become a goodwill ambassador.
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It should be noted that the Soviet Embassy discussed with the Smiths before the trip only the details of the tour, and from the U.S. government they were visited only once by an authorised specialist who advised them on what they might encounter, what they could do, what they should not do, how to act in an awkward situation or not to do something against their country. I believe that the Smiths, as well as the American and Soviet journalists and chaperones, were under surveillance by the secret services the entire trip.

Some Americans scolded the organisers and the Smiths for excessive panache with the Russians. In general, their criticism can be described by a quote from the Miami Herald: "No one denies that Samantha Smith behaved with the dignity and directness typical of a young American woman. She deserves to be admired for that. But the same cannot be said of Jane and Arthur Smith, who allowed the Kremlin to play their daughter like a pawn." Others, however, openly stated that the girl's family was indulging the Communists and their propaganda machine. After the trip, Samantha was often asked about the subject, but here her opinion, still shared by her mother, is quite wise for a teenager. Smith believed that even though the States were trying to use Samantha in psychological warfare, both nations benefited because she was doing a good thing and everyone could see it. So it was good publicity for the Soviet Union and the Americans too. "I think I was used, but if it was propaganda, it was peace propaganda," was Smith Jr's response to the criticism on NBC. Her mother later added: "Thanks to Samantha's trip, it was the first time we were shown Soviet children playing on TV in the United States. Before that, we were shown parades with tanks and soldiers. And it was the first time the Soviets saw that Americans have families too."
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After her return, Smith was involved in community activities, such as the USSR-USA Society, and felt it was her duty to fight for peace and friendship between children. Who knows if she would have become a light of reconciliation or a "reset" in future events? Or perhaps a world-class politician or independent public figure? Would she have led her own line or would she have worked for one of the countries' intelligence services? Or maybe she would organise Russian-American cooperation or even enter into a sincere or demonstrative marriage with a citizen of the USSR. Or maybe there would have been a spy story associated with her that would have been uncovered years later? This we will never know again.
On August 25, 1985, Samantha and her father were returning from the filming of the TV series “Lime Street” from the UK. In Boston, the Smiths switched from the airliner to a small local propeller plane to travel home to Maine. During one of the intermediate landings, the plane crashed due to its descent too early, both crew members and all six passengers were killed. Many immediately began to say that the crash could not be considered accidental. (there is a version that American intelligence agencies are involved here) Various versions were put forward, but the investigation confirmed that the cause of the crash was pilot error. (Although most likely it was the work of the CIA, there are reasons for this, but that's another story)

However, the cause of the accident will not make up for the loss that humanity suffered that day.

Nowadays, many peace foundations, Russian-American enterprises and organizations involved in protecting children are named after Samantha Smith. The name of Samantha, a young goodwill ambassador, is immortalized in monuments and books, on earth and in space.

Interview with Samantha Smith:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=b9DXsHvG-Wk

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AoQ_Lji5V70

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3T4lZnGnY3A

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=o0DDQ3TEZeE

[Russian Bear]

(In the American city of Augusta, a monument was erected to Samantha Smith. The girl is holding a dove of peace in her hands, and at her feet is a bear cub, a symbol of her home state of Maine.)
An interesting fact is that Russia is depicted as a bear, just as America is depicted as an eagle.