Саманта Смит: Бейбітшілікке шақырушы бала

American child peace activist (1972–1985)

Samantha Reed Smith (June 29, 1972 – August 25, 1985) was an American peace activist and child actress from Manchester, Maine, who became famous for her anti war outreaches during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1982, Smith wrote a letter to the newly appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, and received a personal reply with an invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted. Smith attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a "Goodwill Ambassador", becoming known as America's Youngest Ambassador and subsequently participating in peacemaking activities in Japan. With the assistance of her father, Arthur (an academic), she wrote a book titled Journey to the Soviet Union, which chronicled her visit to the country. She later became a child actress, hosting a child oriented special on the 1984 United States presidential election for The Disney Channel and playing a co starring role in the television series Lime Street. Smith died at the age of 13 in 1985, onboard Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808, which crashed short of the runway on final approach to the Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport in Maine.

When Yuri Andropov succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as leader of the Soviet Union in November 1982, the mainstream Western newspapers and magazines ran numerous front page photographs and articles about him. Most coverage was negative and tended to give a perception of a new threat to the stability of the Western World. Andropov had been the Soviet Ambassador to Hungary during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which was put down by the Soviet Army, and the Chairman of the KGB from 1967 to 1982; during his tenure, he was known in the West for crushing the Prague Spring and the brutal suppression of dissidents, such as Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He began his tenure as Soviet leader by strengthening the powers of the KGB, and by suppressing dissidents. According to Vasili Mitrokhin, Andropov saw the struggle for human rights as a part of a wide ranging imperialist plot to undermine the foundation of the Soviet state. Much international tension surrounded both Soviet and American efforts to develop weapons capable of being launched from satellites in orbit. Both governments had extensive research and development programs to develop such technology. However, both nations were coming under increasing pressure to disband the project. In the United States, President Ronald Reagan came under pressure from a lobby of US scientists and arms experts, while in the Soviet Union the government issued a statement that read, "To prevent the militarization of space is one of the most urgent tasks facing mankind". The two superpowers had by this point abandoned their strategy of détente and in response to the deployment of the Soviet Union's new SS 20, NATO deployed cruise and Pershing II missiles in Europe. The 1979–1989 Soviet–Afghan War was also into its third year. In this atmosphere, on November 22, 1982, Time magazine published an issue with Andropov on the cover. When Smith viewed the edition, she asked her mother: "If people are so afraid of him, why doesn't someone write a letter asking whether he wants to have a war or not?" Her mother replied, "Why don't you?"

Smith's contributions have been honored with a number of tributes by Russians and by the people of her home state of Maine. A monument to her was built in Moscow; "Samantha Smith Alley" in the Artek Young Pioneer camp was named after her in 1986. The monument built to Smith was stolen by metal thieves in 2003 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2003, Voronezh retiree Valentin Vaulin built a monument to her after raising funds from private donations. The Soviet Union issued a commemorative stamp with her likeness. In 1986, Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh discovered asteroid 3147, which she named 3147 Samantha. Danish composer Per Nørgård wrote his 1985 viola concerto "Remembering Child" in memory of Smith. A diamond found in Siberia, a mountain in the former Soviet Union, a cultivar of tulips and of dahlias, and an ocean vessel have been named in Smith's honor. In Maine, the first Monday in June of each year is officially designated as Samantha Smith Day by state law. There is a bronze statue of Smith near the Maine State Museum in Augusta, which portrays Smith releasing a dove with a bear cub resting at her feet. The bear cub represents both Maine and Russia. There are streets named after Samantha Smith in the settlements of Buryatia and the Bryansk region (Russia), as well as in Kazakhstan. and in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, have been named after Samantha. In October 1985, Smith's mother founded The Samantha Smith Foundation, which fostered student exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union (and, after December 1991, the ex Soviet successor states) until it became dormant in the mid 1990s. A 1987 episode of the US sitcom The Golden Girls entitled "Letter to Gorbachev" draws inspiration from Smith's story. In addition, the 1987 film Superman IV: The Quest for Peace included a scene where a boy writes Superman a letter to control the nuclear arms race; according to Christopher Reeve, this scene was also inspired by Smith's story. In the mid 1980s, after Smith's death, a script was written for a television movie titled The Samantha Smith Story with Robert Wagner as producer. Columbia Pictures Television and R. J. Wagner Productions were reported to have agreed to produce the film for NBC, with Soviet company Sovin Film interested in co producing it. Ultimately, Columbia Pictures Television decided not to film it due to lack of interest from any network. Speculation as to what a surviving Samantha might have done in adulthood was dismissed by her mother Jane as unanswerable in 2003, given Samantha was only thirteen when she died and her ambitions had varied from a veterinarian to a ballerina. The notion, which had been put to Samantha herself in the eighties, that she could be President of the United States in adulthood, was dismissed by her in the Disney Channel special that she hosted, with the words "being President is not a job I would like to have". The Peace Abbey has also proposed The Peace Literature Project in Honor of Samantha Smith "to educate students about peace and promote peace literature for school age children in 50 selected pilot schools across the United States". Elliott Holt's 2013 novel You Are One of Them, uses the story of Smith as inspiration for a fictional character, Jennifer Jones. On the 30th anniversary of the plane crash in 2015, the Maine State Museum opened a new exhibit of materials related to Smith, including photographs of her time at the Artek camp, traditional Russian clothing she was given, and an issue of Soviet Life magazine with her on the cover. Pioneer shift No. 7 at Artek — from June 20 to July 11 — is called "Samantha's Smile". During this shift, the center "becomes a Young Diplomacy School, each camp turns into a kind of peacekeeping corps." There is also a "Samantha's Place" in the Artek Museum. The inscription is stamped on the pedestal: "May There Always Be Sunshine".