The world of modern crime. Gopnik - who is this? The laws by which Gopniks live

Probably, any person living in the post-Soviet space has heard the word “Gopnik” at least once. The subculture appeared in the twentieth century and became extremely widespread after the collapse Soviet Union.

Most often, young people are called gopniks, but the noticeable features of this social group can be observed in more age categories. Due to the lack of clear self-identification and the Gopniks themselves’ denial of belonging to a particular subculture, it is quite difficult to name the number of “Gopniks” in the CIS countries. Some Russian politicians It has been suggested that a quarter of Russia's youth are gops.

Origin

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, the subculture was not yet clearly formed and was used only within St. Petersburg. In the 20s, on the outskirts of the city (which was already called Leningrad) there was an area for street children and teenage hooligans. The "city hostel of the proletariat" among city residents was called by the abbreviation GOP. This is where the name came from, which gradually spread throughout the Soviet Union.

Spreading

Already in the late 80s, Gopniks began to clearly stand out among the youth of large cities. The subculture was the most widespread among youth movements. However, the difficulty of studying it in detail lies in the fact that the gopniks themselves do not associate themselves with belonging to a particular social group. Moreover, such a generalization causes aggression in them. The appearance of gops is associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Along with the severe economic crisis, there was also dramatic change value systems. In the 90s, it deteriorated sharply. Many people preferred to earn money illegally. And most often they were related to the criminal world, living according to the so-called Zonov concepts.

The desire to assert themselves caused the less-educated and poor sections of the population to strive to be like the “authorities”; this is how Gopniks appeared. The subculture immediately acquired certain features. Most often everything youth movements have certain external signs that set them apart from other members of society. This is primarily the style of clothing, hairstyle, slang, manners.

Who are Gopniks: appearance

Gopniks have a certain style of clothing. Due to the mass nature and lack of self-identification as a member of a certain social group, there are no special stores or brands for gopniks (as in the situation with punks, rappers and other cultures). Clothing is a contrast between neatness and “intelligence” - the canons of clothing accepted in society. Any person dressed excessively, in the opinion of Gopniks, stylish clothes causes them to become aggressive. The gopas themselves wear mostly sports clothes. These are pants and a sweatshirt (sometimes with a hood). As shoes - sneakers or (often under sports suit). Due to low financial situation they cannot afford expensive clothes from famous brands. Therefore, most often they wear fake items from brands such as Adidas, Nike, Reebok and others.

The symbol of “clarity” is also the classic black Leather Jacket, which is worn over a tracksuit. This style came from the criminal circles with which gops associate themselves. Gopniks denies and despises any fashionable hairstyles. Therefore, as a haircut, they choose simple hairstyles for themselves. Most often it is “boxing” or simply Girls, on the contrary, dress in an excessively contrasting and provocative manner in order to emphasize their gender.

Behavior

Who Gopniks are became known thanks to their behavioral traits. Most often they are on the street within their area. IN major cities Often there were fights between representatives of different regions on far-fetched reasons. Gopas walk in groups of several people. Favorite places are poorly lit areas with benches or tables. Gopniks use as entertainment alcoholic drinks and smoke cigarettes. A plastic bottle of cheap beer, a package of sunflower seeds and a cigarette behind the ear are the invariable attributes of a typical Gopnik.

Lifestyle

A special type of pastime is fights and petty robberies. Gopas attack as a group the so-called suckers (non-marginal members of society) in order to appropriate their property - mobile phones, pocket money, precious jewelry. Most often, attacks occur not for profit, but for the sake of self-affirmation. Unstable emotional condition Among Gopniks it often leads to conflicts within their own group. The main thing for gops is imaginary respect, which, in their opinion, can be achieved by demonstrating their physical superiority over other people.

The way of life of Gopniks is reflected in First of all, this is music in which Gopnik jargon is present. Favorite genres are chanson, “boyish” rap, primitive pop.

"), and also disdainfully refer to the so-called. “Suckers” - everyone who does not comply with “boyish concepts” - unspoken rules of behavior that have developed in a criminal environment.

Doctor social sciences, director of the “New Generation” project of the “ Public opinion“Larisa Pautova in 2009 believed that “gopota” is at least 25 percent among modern youth. The sociologist means by this term young people who do not strive for anything, who find themselves among the masses of their own kind. .

Characteristics of the subculture

Researcher of the “Gopnik” subculture - employee of the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Management of Kazan State Technical University. A. N. Tupolev - Ramil Khanipov notes: “The City Center for the Prevention of Neglect and Drug Addiction of Minors of St. Petersburg designates gopniks as “informal associations” and includes them in the “aggressive” section. Discussions on Internet forums speak about the level of development of these informal associations as follows: “... from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, gopniks are to this day the most common form of youth associations,” and all the sources used emphasize the pronounced criminal and group nature of this subculture: “These are mostly fights, robberies, raids aimed at obtaining money..., alcohol and cigarettes."

The head of the Moscow branch of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Oleg Lavrov, said that Gopniks make up a certain part of his party’s electoral base:

Unlike most informal youth associations (for example, hippies, punks, role players), gopniks did not assign any names to the rest of the population and did not distinguish themselves as separate group relative to the entire population, from which it follows that they did not recognize themselves as a subculture.

Stereotypical appearance

• A tracksuit is the most common clothing in summer period, and including pants and a jacket made of synthetic material. As he notes, most often these turn out to be counterfeits of well-known brands purchased on the clothing market (for example, Adidas or Puma). Less often - classic black trousers, often slightly bigger size, than necessary;
• A short jacket made of leather, leatherette or fabric, or a vest made of the same materials over a tracksuit. The collar is often set in a stand-up manner, and it is also often tucked into the pants;
• Among the headdresses, preference is given to a “tablet” cap (an “eight-piece cap” or a baseball cap). The following peculiarity is noted: the hat is not removed indoors, but is worn on the top of the head in such a way that it rests on the back of the ears and does not cover them.
• A typical haircut is “bald” or very short, sometimes with bangs (“half-box”).
• It is also typical to wear a “borset”. Often representatives of the subculture are associated with a bag of seeds, rosary beads and a balisong knife.

Other distinctive features

It is also noted that representatives of this subculture are characterized by the following features:

Reflection in musical culture

There are many dedicated to Gopniks musical works. One of the first mentions of gopniks was recorded in the song by Leonid Utesov - “Gop with a bow” from his repertoire 1929-1933.

The most widely known song is “Gopniki” by Mike Naumenko and the group “Zoo” (). One of the verses of the song characterizes the behavior of Gopniks:

Subsequently, several cover versions were recorded for the song “Zoo” by a variety of performers: “DDT”, “Last Tanks in Paris”, “Different People”, “Az”, “FRONT” and others.

Among the songs of famous performers telling about Gopniks:

In the 2000s, artists appeared whose entire work was devoted to parody typical features Gopniks and their hooligan behavior in the style of the so-called “boy rap”: the groups “Gopota”, “Gopnik” (Ukraine), “Black GUN Dons”, “a.b.i.b.a.s”, “Night Dogs”, as well as the performer Rapper Syava. David Brown dedicated new album Brazzaville group “Teenage Summer Days” to Russian Gopniks.

Use as a political cliché

The phrase was later actively used by the media, politicians and bloggers, and if initially it was used only in a negative way in relation to the “Nashi” movement, then it began to be used more widely.

On January 27, 2009, APN columnist Andrei Okara, describing a talk show he saw on NTV “Honest Monday” with the participation of writer Sergei Minaev and politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, notes.

Gopniks(Also gopy, gopari, collectively - bastard , hopoten, gopyo, gopna, gopsha, can often be interchanged more general concept redneck, or even rabble) is a slang word in the Russian language, denoting representatives of the urban stratum of low social status, poorly educated and without moral values, aggressively minded youth (teenagers), possessing criminal behavioral traits (less often close to the criminal world), often coming from dysfunctional families, and uniting along the lines of a counterculture (informal subculture), due to the need to compensate for their own inferiority complex. The term is widely used in Russia and the countries of the former USSR (since the end of the twentieth century).

Characteristic

IN socially representatives of the subculture mainly come from the outskirts of industrial cities. Most Gopniks came from dysfunctional, poor families. Such moral values ​​as honesty, devotion, respect, politeness, and hard work are alien to them. They are cunning and mercantile, deceitful, prone to meanness, betrayal, ingratiation, hypocrisy and dirty tricks. The image and behavior of a typical gopnik are a parody of representatives of the criminal world of the 1990s in Russia and other CIS countries. The black leather jacket and tracksuit were also adopted by the teenagers directly from them. Gopniks were engaged in petty theft, extortion of money, robberies and beatings of random passers-by (especially at night).

They do not call themselves “gopniks”, and are usually characterized by the self-name “normal boys”, “real boys” or “correct boys”. The word "gopnik" is considered derogatory when applied to oneself. Gopniks oppose themselves to the so-called. “suckers”, however, among Gopniks there is no clear definition of “sucker”. In this regard, the name “sucker” is used by gopniks, depending on whether it is beneficial to the gopnik or not, and can even be used in relation to other gopniks. In addition, representatives of the Gopnik stratum are distinguished by pronounced aggression against members of society who have a higher social status compared to Gopniks, as well as other representatives of society, whose worldview is focused on a progressive lifestyle, the intelligentsia, etc. "Western values" (for example, against those oriented Western culture"informals", "oppositionists").

The word became widespread in the late 1980s in relation to those representatives of young people for whom theft of property on the street was, as Saratov researcher Elena Bessonova notes, “part of the image, a means of entertainment and a way to maintain authority”. According to the researcher, in the 1990s, “gops” appeared, for whom everything characteristic of the life of their “ancestors,” to whom the author includes criminals, became “a kind of philosophy of life, worldview, way of positioning oneself in society”. However, Bessonova notes that, unlike criminals, “ For a modern gop, it is more important to try to scare and humiliate a person, to try to test his power over him, and then to appropriate his money". The proximity to the criminal world predetermined the use of thieves' jargon and profanity.

Unlike most informal youth associations (for example, hippies, punks, rockers), Gopniks did not assign any names to the rest of the population and did not identify themselves as a separate group relative to the entire population, which means that they did not recognize themselves as a subculture.

Researcher Elena Bessonova notes that at the beginning of Perestroika, Gopniks were the only youth subcultures who were not interested in any music. Later, representatives of the subculture were inclined towards criminal music, Russian chanson (Mikhail Krug, Butyrka group, Sergei Nagovitsyn). Also, many prefer “pop” (pop music), “pump” (pumping house) and “boyish rap”.

As Candidate of Sociological Sciences Ramil Khanipov notes, “The City Center for the Prevention of Neglect and Drug Addiction of Minors of St. Petersburg designates gopniks as “informal associations” and includes them in the “aggressive” section. Discussions on Internet forums speak about the level of development of these informal associations as follows: “... from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, gopniks are to this day the most common form of youth associations,” and all the sources used emphasize the pronounced criminal and group nature of this subculture: “These are mostly fights , robberies, raids aimed at obtaining money..., alcohol and cigarettes." .

Doctor of Sociological Sciences, director of the “New Generation” project of the “Public Opinion” Foundation Larisa Pautova in 2009 believed that “gopota” is at least 25 percent modern youth. A sociologist means by this word people who do not strive for anything, without any moral values, who find themselves among the masses of their own kind.

The head of the Moscow branch of the LDPR, O. Lavrov, stated that Gopniks constitute a certain part of his party’s electoral base:

Character traits

IN late XIX century, in the premises of the modern Oktyabrskaya Hotel, located on Ligovsky Prospekt, the State Prize Society (GOP) was organized, where street children and teenagers who were involved in petty robbery and hooliganism were taken. After the October Revolution of 1917, the State Hostel of the Proletariat was organized in this building for the same purposes. The number of juvenile delinquents in the area has increased several times. Among the city residents, the word “Gopnik” appeared, which was used to describe the residents of the GOP from Ligovka. The expression “the number of gopniks is measured in leagues” appeared, and among the residents of Petrograd, then Leningrad, it was customary to ask ill-mannered people: “Do you live on Ligovka?” .

1. aggressive teenager
2. primitive, uneducated young man
3. student of class "G" (in the jargon of schoolchildren)

Philologist E.N. Kalugina agrees with her, noting that the word “Gopnik” can be used to refer to “ primitive, poorly educated young man ". Sociologist Albina Garifzyanova characterizes Gopniks as “uneducated people, culturally backward, absolutely intolerant.” Russian sociologists V.I. Dobrenkov and A.I. Kravchenko noted that the word “Gopnik” is derived from the word hon. - slang word beggars who had absorbed elements of criminal culture, and meant “staying in a shelter.”

A. A. Sidorov notes that the word “Gopnik” is also used to refer to “beggars, tramps, homeless people.” According to Sidorov, this meaning arose even before the revolution of 1917, when in Russia there were “orders of public charity” - provincial committees in charge of caring for the “poor, crippled, sick, orphans, etc.,” who were kept in special charity homes at the expense of zemstvo funds. In this meaning, the word “Gopnik” comes from the word GOP, which stands for "Urban Ghost Society" (from the word ghost- care, care). Due to the fact that the funds allocated to help the poor and homeless were not enough, the inhabitants of the charity houses were engaged in vagrancy, begging, and petty theft. Therefore, the word “gopnik” soon began to be used to describe “tramps, ragamuffins and beggars.” This meaning remained after October revolution 1917. According to the publication “Big explanatory dictionary of the Russian language” ( Chief Editor S. A. Kuznetsov) Gopnik - “ a person from the lower social classes; tramp". Philologist T. F. Efremova, the word “Gopnik” means “ a degenerate person, a tramp» .

Concepts similar in meaning: urla, hooligans, punks, street gangs, lumpen. [ ]

The word "Gopnik" has an analogue in English language: "chav" (English - chav) is a widely used derogatory slang word for a young man of low social status who usually wears “branded” sportswear, which is also typical of gopniks in the post-Soviet space.

In addition, there is a version that the word “Gopniks” was taken from the cult fantasy story “Journey to Black Uhura” for samizdat, which describes the “planet of Gopniks” as the personification of world evil. The popularizer of this word at the end of the 20th century was Mike Naumenko in one of interview he directly said that he took this word from the work of A. Startsev and A. Dideikin. [ ]

Use of the word as a political cliché

Since the end of the first decade of the 21st century in the media, in speeches Russian journalists, writers, as well as opposition politicians, a new ideological cliché “jubilant bastard” began to sound. Using this epithet, they characterized members of various youth mass organizations that support the political course of the authorities. It first appeared on January 29, 2008 in the Kommersant newspaper in an article about the Nashi movement.

On February 2, 2008, the writer and television and radio host Viktor Shenderovich, in his author’s radio program “Processed Cheese,” plays on a new epithet in an ironic way:

The phrase was later actively used by the media, politicians and bloggers, and if initially it was used only in a negative way in relation to the “Nashi” movement, then it began to be used more widely.

On September 19, 2009, in an article by columnist Pavel Svyatenkov, “jubilant gopota” refers to “a reactionary force standing in the way of a coup.”

On October 10, 2009, an article appeared on a number of regional portals devoted to the conflict between the editors of the Kaliningrad information site and former leader local branch youth movement“Walking Together” and participant of the Seliger 2009 forum Konstantin Minich, which was entitled “Control over Kaliningrad. Ru" is trying to get a "jubilant gopota".

Reflection in popular culture

In movie

• "The Boys" - 1983 film.
• "American" - 1997 film.
• “My Name is Harlequin” - 1988 film.
• "Odyssey 1989" is a 2003 film.
• “Boomer. The second film, 2006.
• “Boys of Steel” is a Russian TV series from 2004.
• "Racketeer" - 2007 film.
• “Alien” - 2010 film.
• “Real boys” is a Russian television series from 2010. This series causes a large number of disputes regarding whether it was filmed for the Gopniks, or is a satire on their lives. The creators of the series took a neutral position, stating that “real boys” are “real” because they “live according to real, not fictitious, life scenarios.”
• “Give me youth! " - Russian sketch show (characters Bashka and Rzhavy).
• “Gop-Stop” - 2010 film.
• "Winterreise" - 2013 film.
• “The Law of the Concrete Jungle” is a 2015 Russian crime television series.
• “Everything and at once” - film 2014.
• A documentary film from the series “The investigation was carried out...” entitled “Death Wish”, dedicated to a fighter who killed hooligans and gopniks.

In literature

• “Gopniks” - book (story and 6 stories) Belarusian writer Vladimir Kozlov.

In music

Many pieces of music are dedicated to Gopniks. One of the first mentions of gopniks was noted in Leonid Utesov’s song “Gop with a bow” from his repertoire of 1929-1933.

The song “Gopniki” by Mike Naumenko and the group “Zoo” () became widely known. One of the verses of the song describes the behavior of Gopniks:

Among the songs telling about Gopniks:

"Gopota" - name music group from Saint-Petersburg.

Foreign analogues

• Chav - in the UK
• Dresiary - in Poland
• Azzi (short for antisocial) - in Germany
• Neckers - in Ireland
• Bogans - in Australia
• Cani - in Spain
• Niero - in Colombia
• Rakai - in France
• Yankee - in Japan
• Arsy - in Israel

see also

Notes

1. , Gopota, -y, zh., collected. Aggressive teenagers, p. 55.
2. , Gopnik, -a, m. 1. often plural. Aggressive teenager. 2. A primitive, uneducated young man. 3. Shk. Student of class “G”, p. 55.
3. , With. 114.
4. Elena Bessonova. Don’t say “gop” until you jump over him... // www.rasklad.ru
5. Pavel Kanygin. Gopniks // Novaya Gazeta, No. 33, May 12, 2008
6. Khanipov R. A.“Gopniks” - the meaning of the concept, and elements of the representation of the “Gopniks” subculture in Russia // “Social Identities in Transforming Societies”
7. Modern youth // Moscow speaks, October 16, 2009
8. Mark Ames and Yasha Levin. In search of gopniks: Exile organizes a safari in Russia // The Exile, translated by InoPressa.ru, June 07, 2007

Gopniks(also - gopy, gopari, collectively - gopota, gopoten, also self-name - boys) - a slang word in the Russian language, a derogatory designation for representatives of the urban stratum, close to the criminal world or with criminal behavioral traits Russian youth, as well as the youth of countries former USSR(since the end of the twentieth century), often poorly educated, coming from disadvantaged families

Origin and meaning of the word "Gopnik"

Russian writer A. A. Sidorov, writing under the pseudonym Fima Zhiganets, analyzing the origin of the word gopnik, refers to Vladimir Dahl, in whose dictionary the word gop “expresses a jump, jump or blow..., gopnut, jump or hit.” According to A. A. Sidorov, the word “gopnik” (or “gopstopnik”) refers to a street robber. The same follows from short dictionary criminal jargon compiled by Yu. K. Alexandrov, where the word “gopnik” refers to a robber. According to the help service of the Russian “Reference and information portal Gramota.ru”, the word “Gopnik” refers to slang words in the Russian language and means “a fraudster, a raider; pogromist, hooligan."

A. A. Sidorov notes that the word “gopnik” is also used to designate “beggars, tramps, homeless people.” According to Sidorov, this meaning arose even before the revolution of 1917, when in Russia there were “orders of public charity” - provincial committees in charge of caring for the “poor, crippled, sick, orphans, etc.,” who were kept in special charity homes at the expense of zemstvo funds. In this meaning, the word “gopnik” comes from the word GOP, which stands for “City Charity Society” (from the word prizor - care, care). Due to the fact that there were not enough funds allocated to help the poor and homeless, residents of charity homes were engaged in vagrancy, begging, and petty theft. Therefore, the word “gopnik” soon began to be used to describe “tramps, ragamuffins and beggars.” This meaning remained after the October Revolution of 1917. According to the publication "Big Dictionary Russian language" (editor-in-chief S. A. Kuznetsov) Gopnik - "a person from the lower social classes; tramp". According to the explanatory and word-formative dictionary of the Russian language of the candidate philological sciences T.F. Efremova, the word “gopnik” means “a degraded person, a tramp.”

At the end of the 19th century, in the premises of the modern Oktyabrskaya Hotel, located on Ligovsky Prospekt, it was organized State Society Charities where street children and teenagers who were involved in petty robbery and hooliganism were taken. After the October Revolution of 1917, the State Dormitory of the Proletariat was organized in this building for the same purposes. The number of juvenile criminals operating in this area has increased several times. Among the city residents, the word “Gopnik” appeared, which was used to describe the residents of the GOP from Ligovka. The expression “the number of gopniks is measured in leagues” appeared, and among residents of Petrograd and then Leningrad it was customary to ask ill-mannered people: “Do you live on Ligovka?”

A. A. Sidorov notes that in the late 1920s, the “tramp brethren” used the word “gop” to call dosshouses, and their inhabitants - “gopniks” or “gopa”. Russian sociologists V.I. Dobrenkov and A.I. Kravchenko noted that the word “gopnik” is derived from the word gop - a slang word for beggars who absorbed elements of criminal culture, and meant “staying in a flophouse.”

Sidorov draws attention to the plot of the story “Republic of SHKID” by L. Panteleev and G. G. Belykh, in which the teacher, wanting to threaten the students, shouts at them: “You will only be a nuisance to me. I’ll tell you... Gopa Kanavskaya! Talking about the wanderings of one of the heroes of the story, the authors write: “Korolev spent the whole summer “chavvying”, traveling around railways with troop trains heading to the front."

Analyzing the origin of the word, Sidorov also draws attention to the widespread and associated with the word “Gopnik” expression gop-company, which means “a cheerful gathering of people who are not too serious and reliable, on whom it is better not to rely in a responsible matter.”

According to E. N. Kalugina (Stavropol State Agrarian University), the word “gopnik” can be used to describe “a primitive, poorly educated young man.” Sociologist Albina Garifzyanova understands gopniks as “uneducated people, culturally backward, absolutely intolerant.”

Concepts that are similar in meaning: hooligans, punks, street kids, street gangs, lumpen.

The word "gopnik" has an English equivalent: "chav" is a widely used derogatory slang word for a young man of low social status, who usually wears “branded” sportswear, which is also typical for gopniks.
Characteristics of representatives

As a stable expression, the word appeared in the late 1980s in relation to representatives of young people, for whom theft of property on the street was not so much a professional trade, but, as Saratov researcher Elena Bessonova notes, “part of the image of a criminalized community, a means of entertainment and a way of maintaining authority " According to the researcher, in the 1990s, “gops” appeared, for whom everything characteristic of the life of their “ancestors,” to whom the author includes criminals, became “a kind of philosophy of life, a worldview, a way to position themselves in society.” Bessonova notes that “for a modern gop, it is primarily more important to frighten and humiliate a person, to test his power over him, and then to appropriate his money.” The proximity to the criminal world predetermined the use of thieves' jargon and profanity.

Socially, representatives of the subculture mainly come from the outskirts of industrial cities. Most Gopniks came from poor, dysfunctional families.

The image and behavior of a typical gopnik are a parody of representatives of the criminal world of the 1990s in Russia and other CIS countries. The black leather jacket and tights were adopted by teenagers directly from them. Gopniks were engaged in petty theft and extortion of money.

Representatives of the Gopnik stratum are distinguished by pronounced aggression against members of society oriented towards Western values ​​(as a rule, against “informals” oriented towards Western culture), and also disdainfully treat the so-called. suckers - everyone who does not comply with “boyish concepts” - the unspoken rules of behavior that have developed in the criminal environment.

As noted by Ramil Khanipov (Kazan State Technical University them. A.N. Tupolev), “The City Center for the Prevention of Neglect and Drug Addiction of Minors of St. Petersburg designates gopniks as “informal associations” and includes them in the “aggressive” section. Discussions on Internet forums speak about the level of development of these informal associations as follows: “... from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, gopniks are to this day the most common form of youth associations,” and all the sources used emphasize the pronounced criminal and group nature of this subculture: “These are mostly fights , robberies, raids aimed at obtaining money..., alcohol and cigarettes."

The head of the Moscow branch of the LDPR, O. Lavrov, stated that Gopniks constitute a certain part of his party’s electoral base: We believe that Gopniks are the most powerful political force in Russia. People laugh at us, call us a party of marginalized people: gopniks, thieves, tramps and drunkards. But, you see, these are all people whose interests no one else represents. We set up our stations at railway stations and at one time we had a million members. When we nominated Malyshkin as a presidential candidate in the 2004 elections, people were shocked. Well, yes, he is, of course, not an intellectual, but the gopniks will vote for him.

Doctor of Sociological Sciences, director of the New Generation project of the Public Opinion Foundation, Larisa Pautova, believed in 2009 that at least 25 percent of modern youth are “gopota”. The sociologist means by this word young people who do not strive for anything, who find themselves among the masses of their own kind.

Unlike most informal youth associations (for example, hippies, punks, role-players), gopniks did not assign any names to the rest of the population and did not identify themselves as a separate group relative to the entire population, which means that they did not recognize themselves as a subculture.

In the majority youth subcultures characterized by a hostile attitude towards gopniks, reaching the point of extreme antagonism.

Researcher Elena Bessonova notes that at the beginning of Perestroika, gopniks were the only youth environment who was not interested in any music. Later, representatives of the subculture were inclined towards thieves' music, Russian chanson (Mikhail Krug, Butyrka group). Also, many prefer pop (pop music) and “boyish” rap.

There are a great many subcultures in our society. Each of them has its own specific characteristics, attributes, lifestyle, and behavior. Today we will talk about gopniks.

The term itself comes from the slang word “gop”, which means “kick, jump”. Russian language dictionaries say that a gopnik is a street robber, a hooligan.

Gopniks, they are also gopas, gopota, gopori - the designation of some representatives of the youth. They are close to the criminal world, sometimes with traits of criminal behavior. Most often these people come from low-income families. Have low level education. According to statistics, gopniks study or have graduated from vocational schools and technical schools. But you can also find them in schools.

Most often you can meet gopniks at entrances and stalls. A particularly favorite place is the benches in the yard. Here they discuss various topics, for example, who has the coolest car or the details of the latest fight. Communication is emotional, there is a lot of obscene language. Often communication takes place accompanied by chanson playing mobile phone. Gopniks love to squat. They often drink beer from plastic cups and nibble on sunflower seeds.

How do Gopniks dress?

Any informal culture can be distinguished by its appearance. Gopniks also have their own distinctive features. Here are some of them:

• sneakers counterfeit famous brands, such as Adidas, Reebok, Puma;
• tights-type sweatpants, usually with one or two stripes along the seams;
• a leather jacket, usually open, or a tracksuit jacket;
• eight-piece cap, baseball cap or winter black hat(popularly “Chechen”).

Gopniks have a very short haircut, sometimes they leave it small bangs. It’s interesting how the Gopniks wear their hats. It is put on the top of the head. In this case, the hat should not cover the ears, but, on the contrary, rest on them from behind.

In general, these people dress in a very specific way. Complete incompatibility and extreme cheapness of clothing are the main criteria for a Gopnik’s wardrobe.

How to deal with gopniks

If you meet a company on the street that matches the above description, then you need to follow a number of rules:

• Try to pass by without turning around;
• You should move quickly, along a broken path (through courtyards, for example);
• Staying close to passers-by will make it appear that you are not alone;
• Avoid dark, deserted places;
• Try not to start a dialogue with them.

If you do start a conversation with a gopnik, then you need to know how to talk to him.

How to talk to gopniks

The conversation usually takes place on their initiative. They may ask you for a cigarette, ask you to make a phone call, or ask where you are going and why. One can only guess about their intentions. However, the consequences are often unpleasant. Gopniks - aggressive people. Therefore, it is important to understand how to communicate with gopniks. Here are tips for dialogue with gopniks:

• smile, kindness is always useful;
• It is advisable not to answer questions, and if you have to, then speak briefly and to the point;
• do not comply with any requests;
• remain polite and calm;
• Don’t speak in terms or fancy words.

Many people are interested in the question of how to deal with gopniks. The fact that there are more and more such people is an indicator of the level of development of the state. Naturally, there is no point in physically destroying them. After all, if you attack Gopniks in a crowd, you can make enemies for yourself. Therefore, the fight against gopniks is a rhetorical question. But don't forget about your safety. It is necessary to keep yourself in physical shape. If you do not know any type of martial arts, then classes in gym once or twice a week will help you stay in good physical shape. In addition, strength and endurance will increase. It is also useful to know street self-defense techniques. They are easy to find on the Internet and practice with a friend.

And if you are attracted by the romance of hooliganism, simplicity of speech and thoughts, you like cheap sportswear and chanson? How to become a gopnik?

It's very easy to become a Gopnik. We go to the market and buy the clothes mentioned above. Download compositions of modern thieves to your phone. We get dressed and go to the nearest yard. We approach any company of gopniks. They will definitely take you for one of their own.

So, I hope now you will know who the gopniks are. Be careful!