Lyubers (люберы ''lyubery'' or любера ''lyubera'') were a youth group in the late 1970s and early 1980s in USSR, starting in

Lyubertsy Lyubertsy ( rus, Люберцы, p=ˈlʲʉbʲɪrtsɨ) is a city and the administrative center of Lyuberetsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Demographics Population: History It was first mentioned in 1621 and was granted town status in 1925 ...

, a suburb of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. It was dedicated to an athletic lifestyle, engaging in activities such as bodybuilding, boxing, athletics, gymnastic exercises and/or other forms of sport.

History

It became active during the period of

Glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...

in the late 1980s in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. It was a youth group whose aim was to "cleanse" Soviet society of the influences of various Western

subcultures A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

which they viewed as decadent, and often attacked other youth, mainly in major cities such as Moscow. However, they always held to certain principles such as fair fight and to never attack women and couples. The "Lyubers" were against outwardly informal dress groups such as

hippies A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

punks Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture ...

and

metalheads A metalhead is a member of the heavy metal subculture. Metalhead may also refer to: Music * ''Metalhead'' (album), 1999 album by Saxon * "Metalhead", a song by Blotto * "Metalhead", a song from the 2008 Miss Kittin album ''BatBox'' * Metalheadz ...

but also held strong anti-fascist views and had conflicts with the emerging

Neo-nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

groups. The name "Lyubers" ("Люберы") comes the Moscow industrial suburb of Lyubertsy. As the Perestroika program opened up the market economy, some of the Lyubers turned to racketeering and organized crime syndicates, this however was swallowed up by a larger group in the 1990s.

References

*Jim Riordan,

Soviet Studies ''Europe-Asia Studies'' is an academic peer-reviewed journal published 10 times a year by Routledge on behalf of the Institute of Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow, and continuing (since vol. 45, 1993) the journal ''Soviet St ...

, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct. 1988) pp 556–572 Society of the Soviet Union Russian youth culture 1970s neologisms Crime in the Soviet Union 1970s in Russia 1980s in Russia