Part II, From a Bird's Eye View, 1989-1991, Chapter 8, Fleeing from Oneself, Chapter 9, Vorkuta—To Freeze in Fire Summary and Analysis

Chapter 8 starts in Baku where the woman housing Ryszard says that the city had fallen prey to aggressive armed bands. She says that policemen are everywhere. However, this statement is an exaggeration. The train station is a madhouse and getting to his lodging seems impossible. Nothing of antiquity lies in Baku. Everything is new. A woman Ryszard is staying with asks him his nationality, which leads Ryszard to comment to the reader that some who lived under the USSR grew up with no national identity. He calls these people the Homo sovieticus. The Soviet state determined the identities of these people and now they search...