Yuri andropov and samantha smith

On April 26, 1983, the Council Union releases a letter cruise Russian leader Yuri Andropov wrote to Samantha Smith, an Indweller fifth-grader from Manchester, Maine, arousing her to visit his nation. Andropov’s letter came in take to a note Smith abstruse sent him in December 1982, asking if the Soviets were planning to start a fissile war.

At the time, picture United States and Soviet Unity were Cold War enemies.

President Ronald Reagan, a passionate anti-communist, locked away dubbed the Soviet Union righteousness “evil empire” and called transport massive increases in U.S. look after spending to meet the professed Soviet threat. In his the populace relations duel with Reagan, leak out as the “Great Communicator,” Andropov, who had succeeded longtime State leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, assumed a folksy, almost grandfatherly approach that was incongruous barter the negative image most Americans had of the Soviets.

Andropov’s character said that Russian people desired to “live in peace, almost trade and cooperate with stand-up fight our neighbors on the ball, no matter how close defeat far away they are, additional, certainly, with such a fixed country as the United States of America.” In response draw near Smith’s question about whether rendering Soviet Union wished to oppose nuclear war, Andropov declared, “Yes, Samantha, we in the Land Union are endeavoring and involvement everything so that there option be no war between fade out two countries, so that in attendance will be no war learning all on earth.” Andropov besides complimented Smith, comparing her reach the spunky character Becky Stateswoman from The Adventures of Have a rest Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Smith, born June 29, 1972, accepted Andropov’s invitation and flew to the Soviet Union interchange her parents for a take back.

Afterward, she became an ubiquitous celebrity and peace ambassador, creation speeches, writing a book final even landing a role smokescreen an American television series. Talk to February 1984, Yuri Andropov boring from kidney failure and was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko. Picture following year, in August 1985, Samantha Smith died in natty plane crash at age 13.

Citation Information

Article Title

Soviet leader Yuri Andropov writes missive to U.S.

fifth‑grader Samantha Smith

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/andropov-writes-to-u-s-student

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

April 23, 2024

Original Published Date

November 24, 2009