Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Peter's crew—known as the Baker's Band—is pretty different from most of the other groups hanging around Moscow. The other crews act more like gangs, doing some seriously shady stuff and wasting all their money on booze and drugs. So what exactly makes the Baker's Band so different?
In order to understand this, we'll need to understand the titular "baker," a.k.a. Jacob. Before we meet Peter, he escaped from a children's home where he had been locked up and was saved from the streets by a baker named Jacob, who gave Peter a job and a place to stay.
More important, however, is the personal relationship between the two of them: Peter claims that Jacob "'was the only person who had ever been good to [him] after [his] mother died'" (5.63). Sadly, this tight bond is broken after Jacob, like so many others, is kidnapped by the government.
But Peter keeps Jacob alive in spirit through the Baker's Band. Though they might be wild, these kids sure are disciplined: Everything is shared and everyone is treated equally. In a way, Peter is doing for these lost kids what Jacob did for him—giving them a second chance at life when no one else will. And with that, the Baker's Band is born. Although they might not be able to make a baguette worth a hoot, these kids are living up to Jacob the Baker's memory in more ways than one.