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Samantha Smith 萨曼塔·史密斯

1972 – 1985

Image: 1985 USSR Stamp with “Samantha Smith” in Cyrillic.

Samantha Reed Smith was an American schoolgirl from Manchester, Maine who became famous in the Cold War-era United States and Soviet Union. In November 1982, when Smith was 10 years old, she wrote to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, seeking to understand why the relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were so tense. Her letter was published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda. Samantha was happy to discover that her letter had been published, however, she had not received a reply. She then sent a letter to the Soviet Union’s Ambassador to the United States asking if Mr. Andropov intended to respond. On April 26, 1983, she received a response from Andropov.

Smith attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a “Goodwill Ambassador”, and became known as “America’s Youngest Ambassador” participating in peacemaking activities in Japan. She wrote a book and co-starred in a television series, before her death at the age of 13 in the Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 plane crash.

图片：印有古斯拉夫语字母书写的“萨曼塔·史密斯”的1985年发行的苏联邮票

萨曼塔·里德·史密斯是美国缅因州曼彻斯特市的一名女学生，在美苏冷战时期享有名声。1982年11月，10岁的史密斯写了一封信给当时的苏联领导人尤里·安德罗波夫，探问美苏关系为什么如此紧张。苏联《真理报》刊登了她的信。萨曼塔很高兴发现她的信被刊登，但是她没有得到任何回应。接着她写了一封信给苏联驻美国大使，询问安德罗波夫先生是否有意回复。1983年四月26日，她终于得到了安德罗波夫的回复。史密斯作为“亲善大使”受到两国媒体的广泛关注，并被称为“美国最年轻的大使”参与日本的创建和平活动。她写了一本书并合演了一部电视连续剧，在巴尔港航空公司1808客机失事中罹难，时年13岁。