Mikhail was making good time on brush-free frozen lakes of the Oulunjärvi lake system. The early morning air was still. Without wind and the muffling of snow the only sound was his own fierce breathing and the swoosh of the skis.
He knew that Arnie was also making good time by taking more risk crossing frozen marshes. Americans took risks. Their country had never experienced any great loss, so of course they were optimistic and adventurous. So were teenagers. Russians were an essentially conservative people, slow to change, steeped in centuries of history—and tragedy. Even the success of the revolution had depended on their innate conservatism, a population that did what it was told by higher authority. He thought of his country as Mother Russia. The Americans thought of their country as a cartoon character called Uncle Sam. Arnie Koski was an American and would take risks. To a people without history, there are few examples of things gone badly wrong.