Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Varlam Babinich loves the color yellow more than Kel loves orange soda—and that's saying something. For him, the color represents nothing less than freedom.
Interestingly, this love is sparked by his early obsession with the sun. Like Icarus, "he'd chased after the sun, certain that if he ran far enough he'd eventually catch up with it" (3.16.5). Though Babinich doesn't get burnt to a crisp, this obsession does lead to him getting locked up in an internat, "a state-run facility for children with mental deficiencies" (3.16.4).
This only makes him long for the color yellow—and freedom—more than ever. He steals a baby because it has a yellow blanket, and act that perhaps represents some last grasp at the innocence of his youth. More troubling is the fact that he cuts a lock of blonde hair off a murdered girl's head. It's these last two acts—brushes with both birth and death—that get him arrested and subsequently executed.
Ultimately, Babinich's quest for freedom was over before it started—someone like him could never live free in Child 44's depiction of the Soviet Union.