Gopnik

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Russian and Eastern European term for delinquent

title: "Gopnik" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["class-related-slurs", "criminal-subcultures", "culture-of-russia", "social-class-in-russia", "culture-of-the-soviet-union", "stereotypes-of-suburban-people", "stereotypes-of-the-working-class", "working-class-in-europe", "socioeconomic-stereotypes", "counterculture-of-the-1980s", "russian-counterculture-of-the-1990s", "counterculture-of-the-2000s", "social-class-subcultures"] description: "Russian and Eastern European term for delinquent" topic_path: "geography/russia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopnik" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Russian and Eastern European term for delinquent ::

::callout[type=note]

::

A gopnik, feminine: gopnitsa, is a member of a juvenile delinquent urban subculture in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and some other former Soviet republics. In the 21st century the image of "gopnik" is mostly preserved as an imitation of the stereotype, e.g., as an artistic image in Russian pop-culture and some other countries.

The collective noun is gopota (). Another Russian collective term for hoodlums is shpana (шпана). The subculture of gopota has its roots in working-class communities in the late Russian Empire and gradually emerged underground during the later half of the 20th century in many cities in the Soviet Union. Even before their heyday in the 1990s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the associated rise in poverty, there was a "gopnik" culture in the Soviet Union. Young men from working class areas rebelled against neformaly (non-conformists) and harassed the lovers of Western music, which had become popular in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Etymology

Folk etymology connects the word to the GOP, the acronym for городское общество призора Gorodskoye Obshchestvo Prizora (municipal welfare society), an organization to provide shelter for the destitute. An alternative origin is the onomatopoeic гоп (gop), 'jump', 'leap', cf. the slang terms го́пать, 'gopat', or гоп-стоп, 'gop-stop', which mean mugging or robbing.

Stereotypical appearance and behaviour

Gopniks are often seen wearing Adidas tracksuits, which were popularized by the 1980 Moscow Olympics Soviet team. While sunflower seeds (colloquially ru [семки] or ru [семечки]) are a common snack in Ukraine and Russia, chewing ("cracking") them in public and spitting out the shells on the ground is characteristic of gopniks.

A stereotypical image of a gopnik is one of being conservative, aggressive, homophobic, nationalist and racist, as well as holding strong anti-Western views.

It is claimed that the originators of the hardbass style of music initially intended it as a parody on the behavior of gopniks.

Squatting

A stereotype of gopniks is resting squatting (Russian slang terms for the position are "на кортах", na kortakh, a truncation of "на корточках", na kortochkakh, Russian for "squatting") or "doing the crab" ("на крабе", na krabe)). It is described as a learned behavior, attributed to Russian and Soviet prison culture, which avoids sitting on the cold ground. This habit of squatting, known as słowiański przykuc ("Slavic squat") is a new stereotype of Russians in Poland, gaining popularity in 2019, along with being drunk and speaking in mat. The "Slavic squat" or "Slav squat" was also popularized in the West in the early 2010s.

In popular culture

The image of a gopnik had undercome a gradual transformation: from petty hooligans to Adidas tracksuit wearing "real lads" (), to a stereotypical image in popular music. Eventually the "squatting Slav" has become an international meme. The popularity of the latter peaked in 2017. By 2020s it went out of fashion, but its notable presence is still preserved. A number of notable Russian and other post-Soviet pop musicians capitalize on the image of "gopnik". Examples include Estonian rapper Tommy Cash, Russian rapper Husky.

The Russian music and dance subgenre hardbass ironically uses the gopnik style.

Notes

References

References

  1. Michele A. Berdy. (2014-04-10). "Thugs, Rednecks, Nationalists: Understanding Russia's Gopnik Culture". [[The Moscow Times.
  2. "Slav Squat – Russian Disturbing Street Trend".
  3. (22 July 2011). "Russia's original gangstas: meet the gopniki".
  4. RIR, specially for. (2016-03-30). "Who are Russia's 'gopniks'?".
  5. (4 January 2015). "Why is Adidas so Popular Among Russians?".
  6. (9 October 2019). "Russian Gopniks: How to look like you belong".
  7. Anastasiia Fedorova. (2014-05-28). "Russia's suburbs lack charm ... which may be why they're creative hotspots". Guardian.
  8. Gopniks are also stereotyped as being prone to [[Substance abuse. substance]] and [[Alcoholism in Russia. alcohol abuse]], [[Petty crime. crime]] and [[Hooliganism#In the Soviet Union and Russia
  9. Yegorov, Oleg. (2017-12-22). "Russian hard bass: How a musical monstrosity went viral".
  10. (1 June 2008). "Trans-national issues, local concerns and meanings of post-socialism: insights from Russia, Central Eastern Europe, and beyond". [[University Press of America]].
  11. Szczerek, Ziemowit. (2019-09-14). "W świecie kucających Słowian". Polityka.
  12. [https://thestrand.ca/the-slavic-squat-phenomenon/ The Slavic Squat Phenomenon]
  13. Kiril Tsanov, [https://www.mirasafety.com/blogs/news/the-history-of-the-slav-squat?srsltid=AfmBOooM-PQvV_G-jaKsjCmO0rs-9kAMbEHzv9LvNxFgnjZWQKfeTaGK The history of the Slav squat]
  14. [https://www.economist.com/1843/2019/09/10/how-the-slav-squat-became-an-internet-sensation How the “Slav squat” became an internet sensation], ''[[The Economist]]'', September 10, 2019
  15. [https://habr.com/ru/companies/ruvds/articles/593359/ Чики-брики и хардбасс: как гопники стали частью мировой мем-культуры]
  16. (2 March 2016). "Intervjuu: Kes on TOMM¥ €A$H ja milline on tema maailm?". [[Delfi (web portal).
  17. [https://nashgorod.ru/news/2025-05-05/reinkarnatsiya-esenina-v-gopnike-reper-haski-vystupit-v-tyumeni-5384037 «Реинкарнация Есенина в гопнике»: рэпер Хаски выступит в Тюмени]
  18. [https://cavedwellermusic.net/albums-reviews/d/dj-blyatman-and-the-world-of-russian-hardbass/ DJ Blyatman and the World of Russian Hardbass]

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

class-related-slurscriminal-subculturesculture-of-russiasocial-class-in-russiaculture-of-the-soviet-unionstereotypes-of-suburban-peoplestereotypes-of-the-working-classworking-class-in-europesocioeconomic-stereotypescounterculture-of-the-1980srussian-counterculture-of-the-1990scounterculture-of-the-2000ssocial-class-subcultures