The slang word "gopnik" does not originate from the criminal 1990s, as one might be tempted to assume. In Dahl's dictionary, for example, the word "gop" means a jump or a hit; in Ozhegov's dictionary, there is an example with the phrase "gop-company"; and in the large explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, "gopnik" is simply a person from the lower social strata or a tramp. So what does the word "gopnik" really mean and where did it come from? Modern lovers of sunflower seeds and tracksuits are the heirs of the daring guys from Ligovka at the beginning of the 20th century and bearers of a century-old tradition. Ligovsky Prospect appeared on the map of Petersburg after the Great Patriotic War, but before that, it was much shorter and was called Ligovskaya Street. It was a troubled city outskirts and a center of criminal life. Poor people and workers lived here, while wealthy citizens avoided the place.

The main supplier of criminal elements was the "Oktyabrskaya" hotel, then still known as "Znamenskaya." There is a legend rooted in the media that at the end of the 19th century, the building at Ligovskaya 10 housed the State Society for the Care of the Homeless, abbreviated as GOP. Homeless children and juvenile offenders were brought here. After the revolution, a second GOP appeared — the State Dormitory of the Proletariat. Not only the abbreviation remained, but also the meaning — criminal personalities still lived here. They began to call themselves gopniks, and the word spread among the masses. The expression "the number of gopniks is measured in leagues" appeared. Any Petrograd resident could comment on a public order offender: "Do you live in Ligovka?"

There is a media-rooted legend that the word "gopnik" originated from the State Dormitory of the Proletariat, located in the Oktyabrskaya hotel in Leningrad. Before the revolution, the building housed the City Society for the Care of the Homeless (GOP), where homeless children and juvenile delinquents were taken.

In reality, the word "gopnik" was recorded much earlier. Moreover, not in Russian, but in Yiddish. The Jewish surname "Gopnik" was quite common before the revolution. Before 1917, it was not easy to change a surname. But even in Soviet times, "Jewish gopniks" were still encountered. For example, the Hero of the Soviet Union Haskel Gopnik bore this surname.

"Gopnik" is derived from the word "gop," which means a jump, leap, or hit. In the novel "Petersburg Slums," the slang verb "gopat" is used in the speech of one character (the criminal "patriarch" Vikulych), which the author explains as "wandering the streets."

With their antics, gopniks seriously complicated the lives of city residents and law enforcement officers. They operated throughout Petrograd, but their main hunting ground was Ligovka, especially the Moscow railway station. Entire gangs picked the pockets of visitors and caused mayhem. Often, girlfriends were involved. The scheme was as old as the world: a girl would meet a man, hint at a pleasant pastime, lure him to a secluded place, where the poor fellow was ambushed by a gop-company. It was considered very lucky if one could pay off with money and avoid bloodshed. Sometimes the gopniks' misdeeds reached horrifying proportions. In 1926, Leningrad was shaken by the so-called "Chubarov case." Details here:

https://reveal.world/story/chubarovskoe-delo-samyj-gromkij-ugolovnyj-protsess-v-istorii-leningrada

A group from Chubarov Lane brutally raped a girl in the San-Galli garden. Thirty men abused the unfortunate woman for several hours. At the trial, they claimed they mistook the passerby for a prostitute and referred to the "glass of water" theory. The verdict shocked everyone: death penalty for the ringleaders, strict regime colony sentences for accomplices.

Sources:

https://kudago.com/spb/news/peterburg---rodina-gopnikov/

https://www.citywalls.ru/house772.html

https://vyshemir.livejournal.com/273251.html