GOPNIK AND THE SLAV SQUAT

What may elsewhere be referred to as white trash or hooligans – roughly that (or those) is what they call gopniki in Russia. Get ready and squat down, to meet authentic Russian folk culture in tracksuits.

Description of the Russian Gopnik

Have you ever seen a Russian in a tracksuit (Adidas or something resembling it), a beer bottle in hand, cigarette hanging from their lips, squatting with flat feet? Then you’ve likely spotted a true gopnik (m) or gopnitsa (f). However, you’re more likely to come across this figure in the digital world (memes, music videos, parodies) than in real life. After a brief heyday in the 90s, the phenomenon has largely disappeared from the streets – but Gopnik Will Never Die.

Gopnik Will Never Die. History of Gopniks
(Vanya, 2019, 2 mins)

Gopniks in 2023?
(Setark, 2023, 18 mins)

See also

• The Gopnik Alphabet (ShakTV, 2023, 5 mins)
• Russia’s Most Hated Sub-Culture (Jimmy The Giant, 2023, 13 mins)
• How to be a Gopnik in Russia – Who is Gopnik – 5 Myths about Russian Gopniks (HBKN Supergopniks, 2019, 5 mins)
• Is Gopniki the Worst Part of Russian Culture? (Be Fluent, 2018, 6 mins)
• What is Gopnik? (Life of Boris, 2016, 5 mins)

Where does the word “Gopnik” come from?

There are various interpretations regarding the origin of the term. “Gopnik” may be derived from Городское Общество Призора (ГОП), a state institution in Saint Petersburg (on Ligovsky Prospekt) for (or against) juvenile criminals. Another possibility is the verb гопать, which means “to rob”. Гоп-стоп (gopstop) is slang for mugging. It’s also the title of a famous song by Александр Розенбаум. More links below.

Gopniks. The Origins of The Word GOPNIK Explained
(Ushanka Show, 2022, 12 mins)

GOP – A Real Gopnik Place. St Petersburg, Russia
(Real Russia, 2020, 11 mins)

Gopnik Challenge: the Slav Squat

The squatting position, or Slav squat, is a lasting legacy of the gopniki. Try it yourself and you might find that it looks easier than it actually is.

Why Do Gopniks Like To Squat?
(Ushanka Show, 2022, 10 m)

See also Russian Gopnik Anatoly Teaches Westerners How to Squat (AnatolyRusTV, 2018, 10 m) and, from the same channel, How to do Long Squat like Real Gopnik (2018, 4 m), and Gopnik Workout (Russian Prison Exercise) (2018, 6 m). Check out Gopnik workout program (Life of Boris 2017, 6 m) – and see if you can answer yes to Could You Pass The Russian Gopnik Test? (Bald and Bankrupt, 2019, 20 m). More links below.

More on the Russian Gopnik

Watch

• Supergopniks – Gopnik Weapons – Fight Like A Gopnik (HBKN, 2020, 4 m)
• A Complete Guide on Dealing with Gopniks (NFKRZ, 2022, 14 m); also from this channel Russian 101 – Talking to Gopniks (2017, 5 m)
• How to Date Real Gopnitsa (Gopnik Dating Tutorial) (AnatolyRusTV, 2018, 5 m)
• What’s in my gopnik bag (Life of Boris, 2017, 7 m)

Read

EN

• Why are hooligans called ‘gopniks’ in Russia? (Russia Beyond, 2022)
• Squatting Slavs: One of the internet’s best-known memes is evolving (Emerging Europe, 2020)
• Gopniki: Peripheral Masculinity in Post-Soviet Russia (Eli A Loeb, 2020)
• Russian Gopniks: How to look like you belong (Russia Beyond, 2019)
• 6 superpowers of the Russian gopnik (Russia Beyond, 2018)
• Opinion: Can Slav and gopnik memes do real damage? (New East Digital Archive, 2016)
• Who are Russia’s ‘gopniks’? (Russia Beyond, 2016)
• Has Russia totally reinvented the rap squat? (Daily Dot, 2015)
• Thugs, Rednecks, Nationalists: Understanding Russia’s Gopnik Culture (The Moscow Times, 2014)
• Russia’s Original Gangstas: Meet The Gopniki (The Exiled, 2010)
• Gopniki (Subcultures List)
• How the Gopnik have become a distinguishing mark of Russia (VanityTeen)
• Gopniks – why do Slavs Squat? (Slavorum)
• Of Russian origin: Gopnik (Russiapedia)
• Wikipedia

RU

• «Гопники» и «фураги» из 1990-ых: какими они были (Dzen, 2023)
• Блатная романтика: вернутся ли гопники на улицы Петербурга (MKRU, 2022)
• Откуда есмь пошел русский гопник. Петербург — родина гоп-стопа (Dzen, 2021)
• Надо знать: Как Петербург обогатил русский язык словом «гопник» (Fiesta, 2018)
• Википедия

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Last updated March 31, 2026