But No Invitation to Visit : Gorbachev Sends Gifts to ‘Japan’s Samantha Smith’

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev today thanked a 12-year-old schoolgirl for writing to him and sent her a book on V. I. Lenin, a pair of picture albums and a samovar--but no invitation to the Soviet Union.

Sixth-grader Aiko Fukuda received Gorbachev’s message and the gifts from Soviet Embassy First Secretary Sergei Kharin at Chukyo University in a brief ceremony in the western city of Nagoya.

Aiko, who has been studying Russian in an adult evening class at the university since last April, had written to the Soviet leader after the Geneva superpower summit and asked him to work toward “more and more peace.”

In his response, the Kremlin leader said he was happy that she wrote to him, thanked her and promised to work toward peace.

Aiko appeared with Kharin at a joint news conference, looking a bit dazed at all the attention. She wished the Gorbachev family a good year and said she would study Russian harder.

Gorbachev also sent five gifts: picture albums of Moscow and of the family of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space; a Russian folklore music record; a book about Lenin’s childhood, and a samovar.

The Soviet leader said he sent her the photographs of Gagarin because he is interested in the peaceful use of space.

But Aiko, who has been dubbed “Japan’s Samantha Smith” after the late American schoolgirl who was invited to the Soviet Union after writing a letter to Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov, did not receive a similar invitation.