Gopnik

A gopnik[a] is a member of a delinquent subculture in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and in other former Soviet republics—a young man (or a woman, a gopnitsa) of urban working-class background.

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.

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.

[5] 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.

[6][7] While sunflower seeds (colloquially semki [семки] or semechki [семечки]) is a common snack in Ukraine and Russia, chewing ("cracking") them in public and spitting out the shells on the ground is characteristic of gopniks.