She is Samantha Smith, a 11 years old girl from Maine. Anyone here still remember her?

A year before her trip, Smith wrote a letter to the newly appointed head of USSR, Yuri Andropov who was deemed a hawk by the west but actually he was an ambitious reformer.

In her letter Samantha asked Andropov, “Why do you want to conquer the world or at least our country?”. Her letter was published in Russia and she received Andropov’s reply and invitation.

She attended summer camp in Crimea where she rejected special treatment and chose to share a dormitory with 9 Russian girls together just like everyone else.

In her press conference after visit, she declared:
The Russians do not want a war. They are just like us.

After her death by accident many Russians believed it was a CIA job because American hawks don’t like to improve relationship between 2 countries, which of course is not true. But it’s understandable why many Russians believed so. If a Russian girl did same like Samantha Smith did and died by accident in Russia, I’m sure many Americans would believe KGB did it.


Link: https://youtu.be/o0DDQ3TEZeE?is=Y2oHoyIE0qzuUp6z