Table of contents:
- The fate of the Ligovsky Canal and the development of the area with modern buildings
- State Prize Society at the Oktyabrskaya Hotel and Help for Wanderers
- Lack of funds and juvenile delinquents
- The most dangerous district of St. Petersburg and high-profile crimes of the GOPnikov
Video: Who are the GOPniks and why their homeland is Petersburg
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Gopniks became famous not at all in the dashing 90s, as many used to think. This term existed back in the 19th century, when the State Prize Society (GOP) was created on Ligovsky Prospect in Petrograd. Street children and small city hooligans who arrived in the city went there. When, at the end of the October Revolution, the Society began to be called the State hostel of the proletariat, the essence did not change. The number of lawbreakers grew, and poorly educated people were routinely asked: "Have you been from Ligovka for an hour?"
The fate of the Ligovsky Canal and the development of the area with modern buildings
Ligovskaya Street appeared in St. Petersburg on the site of the Ligovsky Canal, dug in the 18th century to connect the city with Krasnoe Selo. Transporting raw materials for the paper mill and delivering finished products was faster and cheaper by water. According to another version, the canal served as a recharge from the River of the League of Fountains of the Summer Garden. Having lost its importance, the canal quickly fell into disrepair, clogging up and turning into a fetid drainage of city waste.
Local authorities decided to partially fill up the Ligovsky Canal and build in its place a residential street with the same name, which later turned into a boulevard. Even Nicholas I undertook to ennoble the territories at the intersection of Ligovsky and Nevsky avenues, initiating by his decree the development of this part of the city with "decent structures." The first modern building in 1851 was the hotel "Znamenskaya", during the construction of which all kinds of technical innovations were practiced. The rooms were equipped with pneumatic ovens, fans and even talking pipes. And already in the 20th century, one of the largest city restaurants with half a thousand seats was founded within these walls.
State Prize Society at the Oktyabrskaya Hotel and Help for Wanderers
At the end of the 19th century, the State Prize Society was organized in the hotel building on Ligovsky Prospekt. From now on, orphans from dysfunctional families, juvenile criminals and all minors who reached the social bottom were sent to these walls. However, a revolution broke out and made its own adjustments to good intentions. After the events of 1917, the building did not really change its purpose. Now it housed the State hostel of the proletariat. Not only the essence of the organization has not changed, but even the abbreviation (GOP). And it so happened that the inhabitants began to arbitrarily call themselves GOPniks.
Contemporaries testify that the inhabitants of the Ligovsky GOP stood out among the urban population by their appearance alone, not to mention their criminal lifestyle. They say that GOPniks preferred bright red socks. And when a crime happened in the Ligovka area, the culprits could be safely looked for in the legendary hostel.
Lack of funds and juvenile delinquents
Even when, during the time of tsarist Russia, the charity house was supported by the allocated state funds, there was not enough money, and this place was, in fact, a shelter for unseemly citizens. With the arrival of the new government in Russia and the establishment of a state hostel, the poorest inhabitants of the surrounding area still flocked here in search of funds for food. The number of crimes committed in the already restless Ligovka has increased significantly.
The 1920s became the peak of Russian homelessness. For this reason, the social community for the proletariat was populated mainly not by peasants and workers, but by wandering minors leading an absolutely immoral lifestyle. Petty thieves, hooligans, swindlers have become commonplace in this part of the city. It is not surprising that the expression “Does he live on Ligovka for an hour?” Took root in the lexicon of the inhabitants of Petrograd when it came to rude and ill-mannered people.
The most dangerous district of St. Petersburg and high-profile crimes of the GOPnikov
The inhabitants of the GOP seriously annoyed law enforcement officers with their audacious criminal antics. Moreover, they managed to hunt not only in the area of their residence, but also in the adjacent districts of Petrograd. And yet the main place where the GOPniks operated was Ligovka, which by that time was rightly considered the most dangerous urban area. Criminals did not have to go far to manifest their criminal talents. The most favorite place for self-expression of the Ligov marginals became the Moscow railway station located near the State hostel of the proletariat.
Juvenile criminals, committing endless pickpocketing, worked as whole gangs, not disdaining to involve ladies in the common cause. The usual scenario was situations when a girl took the initiative in acquaintance with a seemingly wealthy citizen and literally imposed a joint pastime on him. But the evening rendezvous turned out to be at least a robbery for lovers of young pretty girls. Some were even less fortunate, and they paid for their own carelessness with their heads. GOPniks were held in cases related to rather serious and dirty crimes. In 1926, Leningrad was shaken by the so-called "Chubarov lawlessness".
The Ligovskaya criminal group, together with accomplices from Chubarov Lane, committed a brutal gang rape of a young girl in the garden of San Galli. Being in a state of alcoholic intoxication, the GOPniks were outraged by the female refusal to communicate. All 30 bandits lost their connection with the legal reality so much that they did not see anything criminal in their actions. However, the case received a wide response, and the judges were as strict as possible. The Chubarovsk group of instigators was sentenced to death, while the Ligovsk accomplices got off with various terms with serving their sentences in high security colonies. The GOPniks decided to take revenge for their unjustly convicted brothers, and a wave of crimes covered Leningrad with renewed vigor. They attacked not only the townspeople, but also the policemen. It was then that serious work began on the extermination of the Leningrad criminals.
Today, a completely different group of people is called gopniks. And popular performers even use their image in their video clips.
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