"I would like to know why you want to conquer the world, or at least our country," Samantha Smith wrote to Soviet President Yuri Andropov. "God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight."

The 1983 letter resulted in a whirlwind:

 Andropov surprised the world by responding to Samantha's plea, inviting the 11-year-old to the Soviet Union and telling her that Russians wanted "peace for ourselves and for all the people of the planet."

 International media descended on Manchester, staking out the Smith home on Worthing Road as Samantha prepared for her journey.

 Accompanied by her parents, Samantha visited Leningrad, Moscow and a Communist youth camp, charming the Russians at every stop with her smile -- and erasing overnight the negative image of Americans constructed by years of Soviet propaganda.

"For me, she was the first American I ever actually saw," said Lena Nelson, a child in Arkhangelsk, just below the Artic Circle, when Samantha toured.

"She was cute. She was smiling. Her parents looked normal," Nelson, now 29, said from her California home. "Our lives weren't that bright. And for me, it was a joy just to look at the newspaper to find a picture of her."

Nelson wasn't alone. The Russians were smitten with the American girl who seemed oblivious to the tension between the nations.

"She was a good age," her mother, Jane Smith, said. "She was too young to be worried about ramifications."

After the trip, Samantha returned to a semblance of normal school life. She went to Manchester Elementary School. She was a Girl Scout. She liked Michael Jackson.

But her profile remained high. She sat with Johnny Carson and appeared in the sitcom "Charles in Charge" alongside Scott Baio. She talked with Ted Koppel.

She even accepted a role in a television drama starring Robert Wagner.

The future looked bright.

Then the whirlwind ended.

While flying home with her father, Arnold, from a taping of the TV show, their small plane crashed as it approached the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport.

Samantha died on Aug. 25, 1985.

***

Twenty years later, the world is greatly different.

Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded Andropov as the Soviet president in the 1980s and moved Russia toward a new openness. The "Evil Empire" disintegrated before the decade ended, and Russia has since taken halting steps toward capitalism and freedom.

Some believe Samantha's visit helped bring about change in Soviet-American relations.

"Here you had a girl who was asking questions as if the Soviets were real human beings. That alone was a breakthrough," said Robert Weisbrot, a history professor at Colby College.

"I think it contributed to seeing the Soviets as human as opposed to faceless Communist demons," Weisbrot said. "That made it at least a bit easier (for American officials) when Gorbachev came to power and took tangible steps toward ending the Cold War."

Samantha's trip wasn't warmly received in all quarters.

Some believed then, and continue to believe, the Smiths were used by the Russians -- that Samantha was a prop in a public relations stunt.

"These guys didn't do anything unless there was an ulterior motive," said Andrij Krochmaluk, 61, of Richmond, a Ukranian-American whose father, a journalist, was imprisoned by the Soviet government.

"The Kremlin wanted to make themselves look like the good guys," Krokhmaluk said. "But that doesn't take anything away from the girl who went over there."

Others remind that a 12-year-old Russian girl, Irina Tarnopolsky, wrote her own letter to Andropov. She asked that her family be allowed to emigrate.

Tarnopolsky never got a response -- or international attention.

Colby College professor Kenneth Rodman said the idea that one person can make an impact on world events -- that "citizen activism" can trickle up and influence the mighty -- is powerful and appealing.

His view, however, is less idealistic.

"The ultimate decisions about war and peace are going to be made by political leaders," said Rodman, director of the college's Oak Institute for the Study of Human Rights. "Ultimately, Gorbachev made the decisions he did because he realized that the Soviet political system wasn't working.

"And (President Ronald) Reagan," Rodman said, "was a pragmatist in dealing with a Soviet leader who was different than his predecessors."

Reagan made his own historic journey to the Soviet Union in 1988, five years after Samantha's trip.

"He followed in her footsteps, I think," Jane Smith said with a smile.

***

Even if Samantha's impact on international relations is uncertain, her impact on many who know her story is clear-cut.

Patrick Carkin was 13 and living in Richmond when Samantha went to Russia.

Enthralled with the story, he stood outside her home before the trip and met her at the airport when she returned.

Carkin, now 35, admits he then had a teenage crush on Samantha.

He didn't expect then that her impact on his life would be so profound.

Carkin became an idealist, an agitator and an activist who eventually led New Hampshire Peace Action.

"The reason I was the director of the peace group was because of Samantha," said Carkin, who still lives in New Hampshire. "She showed me that you can be a complete nobody and ask a question in a political fashion and be heard."

Sarah Warren was a classmate of Samantha's, a friend who watched with amazement as the letter "snowballed into this incredible series of events."

Warren was one of about 20 former classmates who tried to keep Samantha's memory alive by participating in a Maranacook Community High School program that took American students to the Soviet Union, and vice versa.

Warren and her classmates also made the trip.

"Having that experience," she said recently, "and following in Sam's footsteps sparked a real travel bug and made me want to meet people and explore the world."

After college, Warren spent years in Afghanistan as part of a program trying to rid the nation of land mines.

Today, she's in Israel, working for an aid organization active on the West Bank, where harsh relations between Palestinians and Israelis echo the old Soviet-American tensions.

As an antidote, Warren tells those on the West Bank about Samantha.

"I'm still telling her story," she said by phone from Jerusalem.

Not everybody influenced by Samantha, of course, sets out to save the world.

Tandy Ratliff, 35, is a stay-at-home mom in South Portland. But her home is unusual: Russian momentos, propaganda posters and folk art fill her rooms -- the detritus of a fascination with Russian culture sparked by Samantha's trip.

Kimberly McKee, a former classmate of Samantha's, lives now in Wayne and still thinks often of her former classmate.

Eighteen months ago, McKee had a baby boy.

His name? Samuel.

You can guess who he's named after.

***

Some worry that Samantha's trip and message are fading from memory.

Jane Smith, who lives now in Boothbay, says most of the people she encounters have forgotten the story.

For a time, the Samantha Smith Foundation served in her honor. Run by Jane Smith, the program sponsored trips to the United States for about 1,000 Russian children.

The end of the Cold War stole the foundation's mission, and it's no longer active.

It seems that Samantha's story is fresher in the minds of Russians than Americans.

"Samantha had quite an impact on people here," Natalie Botova, who guided Samantha around the Soviet Union in 1983 and still works for the Russian government, wrote in an e-mail. "People remember her."

Maine has honored Samantha with a life-size statue outside the state library in Augusta. A bear cub is at her feet; a dove is cupped in her hands.

Others wish the federal government would also acknowledge Samantha.

"I think it's kind of insulting to her memory that there hasn't been more recognition on the formal level," Carkin said.

Still, there are efforts to keep Samantha's story familiar.

Painter Robert Shetterly of Brooksville, for example, has included Samantha in a portrait series he calls "Americans Who Tell The Truth." When the exhibit travels, her portrait hangs alongside notables such as Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln.

"She stood up for a particular kind of truth," Shetterly said. "She was reminding us not to demonize people and not to do the awful things that become possible when people are dehumanized."

Some who knew Samantha say the lack of formal recognition is just as well, because they are uncomfortable with attempts to deify her.

She was, after all, only a young girl.

"She was just an ordinary kid," Warren said. "What happened was extraordinary."

When Samantha returned from that extraordinary experience, she appeared on "Nightline."

"Well, now that you've gone through this experience," Ted Koppel said, "now that you've completed it, what do you conclude from all of this?"

"Well," Samantha answered, "I just hope we can have peace, and I hope it'll do some good."

Two decades later, we don't have peace.

But it's clear Samantha's trip did some good.

Chris Churchill -- 623-3811, Ext. 431

cchurchill@centralmaine.com