Video: The tragic story of Samantha Smith: why did the American, who became the youngest ambassador of goodwill, die?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
June 29 American Samantha Smith She would have turned 44, but her life ended in 1985. Then the whole world was talking 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 US and the USSR. And two years later, the girl died in a plane crash, which made many doubt the accident of this sudden death.
In the fall of 1982, Samantha Smith read an article in Time Magazine about Yuri Andropov, who came 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 a new war is possible during his reign. Samantha asked her mother why everyone was so afraid of him and no one would ask if he was 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.
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 about a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Are you for the war or not? If you are against, please tell me, how are you going to prevent the war? You, of course, do not 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. Yours sincerely, Samantha Smith.
On April 26, 1983, Samantha received a letter from Andropov with an invitation to come and personally make sure that the USSR was not preparing for war. “We in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything so that there is no war between our countries, so that there is no war at all on Earth. This is what every Soviet person wants,”Andropov wrote.
In July 1983 Samantha Smith with her parents arrived in the USSR and stayed there for 2 weeks. She was shown the mausoleum, museums, sights of Moscow and Leningrad, the Artek pioneer camp in Crimea. She was met by thousands of people, but 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: "Let's live!" After her visit, a new expression appeared - "children's diplomacy".
After the trip, Samantha Smith wrote a book, "My Journey to the USSR, in which she stated:" They are the same as we are! " 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 the popular show. In America, they switched to a local airline flight. Weather conditions were unfavorable, and in conditions of poor visibility, the plane missed the landing strip and crashed. 2 pilots and 6 passengers were killed.
Since then, there has been a debate about what was the real cause of Samantha Smith's death. Theories were put forward that this plane crash was orchestrated by either Soviet or American special services. They said that Samantha died because of pro-Soviet statements, which was contrary to US policy. R. Koshurnikova asserts: “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."
However, a thorough investigation of the disaster showed that all responsibility for the accident lies with the pilot: in bad weather conditions, he made a mistake by missing the runway.
And in 1986 she paid a return visit to the United States. the most famous schoolgirl in the USSR Katya Lycheva.
Recommended:
Love tragedy at the walls of the Kremlin: Why in 1943 they dealt with the daughter of the Soviet ambassador and what does the Nazis have to do with it
In 1943, at the very apogee of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow was shocked by a crime, all the details of which were immediately classified. Not only did the suicide criminal and his victim turn out to be the children of eminent Soviet officials, but everything also happened under the Kremlin itself. While the brave people of the USSR were dying at the fronts, Moscow investigators were investigating a complicated case that led to the discovery of a secret pro-Nazi association. And if the members of the underground group were rank-and-file Soviets
Why the youngest Soviet boxing champion became a gravedigger in a cemetery: the tragedy of Vyacheslav Lemeshev
Vyacheslav Lemeshev is the youngest Soviet Olympic boxing champion: at the time of his triumph in Munich, he was only 20 years old. Just think, in the "golden" Games for himself, he won four out of five fights by knockout. Moreover, the athlete was distinguished not only by tremendous strength, but also by a unique reaction that allowed him to take his rivals by surprise. In the USSR, he was a favorite of the public: crowds of fans literally followed on his heels. But the star of the outstanding boxer went out as quickly as
The Story of a Masterpiece: Why Wyeth's World of Christina Became a Cult American Cult
Almost every nation has cult works of art that fully reflect their spirit, mentality and attitude. Today I would like to tell you about the painting "Christina's World" by American artist Andrew Wyeth - a cult canvas that for Americans has the same meaning as for us the most famous canvases of Russian classical artists
Why the youngest defender of the Brest Fortress became a criminal: Pyotr Klypa
Perhaps the country would never have known about such a hero as Peter Klypa if the writer Sergei Smirnov had not decided to write a book about the defenders of the Brest Fortress. As it turned out, the 14-year-old teenager was not only one of the few who managed to survive, but also accomplished many feats and was captured. However, after the war, the young hero chose the criminal path, for which he received 25 years in prison. How did it happen that a young intelligence officer became a criminal?
American Horror Story - abandoned houses where tragic events took place
"13: American Horror Story" by photographer Seph Lawless is a series of photographs (included in his book of the same name), which brings together abandoned houses that "have seen" a lot of fear and horror: murder, suicide and other very shocking and unexplained cases