"Sometimes I still think with anxiety, if the next day the last day of life on earth will not. But I'm sure: the more people will think about the fate of the world, the more likely to win peace in the world ".
These are the words of the book, who wrote the American girl many years ago.
It is unlikely that modern teenagers today know something about Samantha Smith. And once she was the most famous baby in the world. Without exaggeration.
It has passed since 35 years, but still the memory of the middle and older generation is not the image storsya.
Soviet children and could not conceive of, to write a letter to Western political leaders to think about the establishment of friendly relations between the two countries, It is in a state of cold war.
More surprising to every young citizen of the USSR was, that the ten-year-old girl from a small town in Maine wrote a letter to the General Secretary of the CPSU Yuri Andropov, and more surprising is, Yuri Andropov gave her answer, and the young Samantha received his invitation to visit the Soviet Union.
Samantha Smith contents of the letter were several times published in Soviet newspapers. In his letter, she was worried about, so between the two countries does not start a nuclear war, and asked to answer the Soviet leadership, that it is going to do, to prevent a war between the US and the USSR.
Whence, then, to know, it was not the first of its letter to the political leaders of the world, Samantha previously wrote the leaders of other countries, including monarchs. Therefore, when Soviet children (and not only children) We were really surprised by the act of a young American, reading out literally to "Pioneer truth" holes, which led to this "chronicle" of events, associated with Samantha.
In the middle of the summer holidays 1983 of the year (7 July) Samantha Smith flew to Moscow with her parents, at the airport they were met by literally crowds. For these two weeks, Smith family spent in the USSR, Samantha visited Moscow, Leningrad, He spent several days in a camp "Artek".
During these few days, Samantha became a world celebrity and, without exaggeration, – the heroine of this for the Soviet boys and girls.
“Samantha Smith - a symbol of friendship between all the world's children. She is a fighter for world peace”. it slogans 1983 of the year.
she imitated, be loved, She had a large correspondence with children from around the world, the main place in which occupies the correspondence with the children of the Soviet Union.
Samantha called at the same time a little after the world and a propaganda tool. certainly, without propaganda has not been, but it turned out, Samantha has played into the hands of the two superpowers: Soviet people fascinated her American directness and showed the Americans the human face of the USSR.
In the early eighties, the threat of global conflict was real than ever. It is difficult not to recognize. The Soviet Union accused, he there aggressive plans to seize the territories of other countries using military force. The following were used as a typical argument: Soviet tanks are near Berlin, in Warsaw, Czechoslovakia, southern Europe, Moscow sent troops to Afghanistan.
AT 1981 the US president became a staunch anti-communist Reagan, which threatens to send Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history, and in the Soviet Union at about the same time, it came to power a former head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, which does not intend to make any concessions in its relations with the West.
Heating up to a limit situation, both countries intensify the arms race. The two superpowers is urgently required discharge. And it is very handy in the press published a letter of a young American.
At that time, the impression, Samantha the trip was almost the joint Soviet-American operation to establish bridges.
Samantha's parents also were of the opinion, that both countries have tried to use their daughter in the psychological war, but that their people to benefit. Thanks to trip Samantha, on US television for the first time revealed, how Soviet children play, and in the Soviet Union saw, that the Americans We have families, living in daily affairs.
But the sudden death of the most famous girls only confirmed the conspiracy theory.
25 August 1985 Samantha year with his father returned from the UK, when landing at the airport in Augusta plane crashes. The coincidence of the crash trust units.
Later in the USSR in the journalistic environment version that will, that the reason – pro-Soviet statements Samantha, which ran counter to US policy.
After returning home, Samantha often gave interviews, expressed the opinion that, that the Soviet people do not have to be afraid of, that live in the USSR are the same children, they also want to be friends. The girl grew up, umnel. It has become too independent in his judgments. image of the enemy, created in the United States to the Soviet Union, It was partially destroyed largely due to the very journey Samantha in Russia.
According to another version, Samantha saw the death of the "trace of the KGB and the CIA" - ostensibly so the security services wanted to complete the operation. In just a few months before the tragedy of the new head of the country of the Soviets became Mikhail Gorbachev, who placed himself as a politician, too open for a peaceful dialogue with the US, and mediators in this issue the two countries were no longer needed.
Evidence of these versions, of course, no, but the people on both sides of the ocean was too hard to believe, that the life of 13-year-old girl could be interrupted so early and so tragic – without any undercover intrigue.
After Samantha's death, the Soviet Union tried to do so, what would her memory and her noble mission of Goodwill Ambassador is not erased.
The summer camp "Sea" was opened named Samantha Smith Alley and memorial stele. It is named after the asteroid, outdoor Crimean astronomer L.Chernyh, and it was named after the mountain top in the Caucasus, marine vessel, Yakutsk diamond. Streets named Samantha Smith is in the settlements of Buryatia and the Bryansk region.
Today, when the planet does not stop military conflicts, and again speak of the danger of a major war, perhaps, not enough of the right Children's diplomacy, that without propaganda raid could say modern politicians: "The world - this is the main, that we have, keep it ".
