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Cultural Markers of Ukrainian Public Space: Mixture and Instability. The City of Lviv Case
image and have been proclaimed unimportant. Lviv is just the historical center of the city.
At the same time the culture of sleeping districts possesses its own history, traditions and
original identity.
Two particular Lviv’s sleeping districts became famous everywhere in Ukraine thank-
fully to the singers who used to live there. The song “Levandovka” performed in the 1990s
by Garik Krichevsky, a famous criminal-“chanson” singer praises the romanticized daily
life of local pickers. The subculture of Levandovka young inhabitants described in this
song can find its expression in criminal networks, small thefts and robberies, drugs traf-
ficking and specific rules of conduct and appearance. However, in reality there is no seri-
ous criminal organization as criminality exists mostly at the level of some romantic narra-
tive and rules for “really cool guys”. Due to its low level of danger this subculture (typical
of not just one Lviv’s district but of similar areas in other cities too) becomes an object
of interest and interpretation for younger intellectuals and writers. Levandovka’s identity
was humorously presented at the internet-site www.levandovka.lviv.ua. Representatives of
this subculture, named “gopniki” become main characters of the novel “Pisma bratana”
(“Brother’s letters”) written by psevdo-gopnik author Genya Galyas.
Another district, called Syhiv. was poetized in the rap-song by VovaZiLvova (Vova
from Lviv) in 2006. The picture of the area described in this song differs from the previous
one as VovaZiLvova sings about the district in which he grew up, walked with friends and
played basketball. The mood of the song is similar to that of the mood of Syhiv Internet
site (www.syhiv.nashlviv.com) called “For those who like it as it is”.
Syhiv differs from other Lviv’s districts. It was one of the last Soviet projects realized
in Lviv. Its construction began in 1979. It was an ambitious project pretending to create
not just a district but a city:
A small church in Hotkevycha street, Syhiv
A typical Virgin Mary statue